We're beginning to wonder if David Karp and the
others behind Tumblr, the increasingly cool
tumblelog service, have forgotten the meaning of the word 'sleep,' as some recent updates have brought even more coolness to the table. First up is a dramatically improved bookmarklet that gives users a lot more control over what they're posting and how. To its credit, the previous bookmarklet was pretty smart about knowing whether you want to share things like a quote, a picture or a video, but it didn't give you a say in the matter. Now, the new tabbed version (officially version 3) puts the choice back into your hands, just in case you have something different in mind than what Tumblr's clever javascript choses.
Next on the big-hitters list is Tumblr.com/Radar (in alpha, cuz beta is so yesterdy), a page that lets you watch the new posts appearing across all Tumblr blogs. This is a great idea, though we figure this should simply be the main page for Tumblr.com to help introduce those who are new to the concept of a tumbelog and to help potential users get the ball rolling (Exhibit A: the del.icio.us main page).
Other notable changes include a clean new theme added to the growing list, dynamic quote sizes for quote posts, new 'links with descriptions' and 'YouTube Videos' options for feed importing and something that should put a smile on the face of developers and blog hackers everywhere: an official Tumblr API.
Nice work yet again for the service that makes stream-of-conscious blogging perhaps easier than it should ever be.
