Posterous: minimalistic microblogging and sharing
Ready to start a microblog at Posterous? OK. Send an e-mail to post [at] posterous [dot] com. Now you’re done! They will reply with your Posterous URL, and your blog setup is complete. Of course, you can go to the site and flesh out your profile, but the initial setup is done without a single form to fill out or password to create. Most anyone who uses the Internet is familiar with e-mail making Posterous the every-man blogging platform.
Being a power user (not to mention a control freak), I created my Posterous account on the site in the more traditional way of registering for web services. I did so because was unsure how the e-mail account creation would determind what URL to designate for my blog. I registered raddevon.posterous.com, got my confirmation e-mail, and started composing a quick post in Gmail. I sent the post in and received a reply asking me to click a link to confirm my address and post. I did so, but the post never showed up on raddevon.posterous.com. After noticing that my profile page still said my e-mail was not confirmed, I realized I had created a new blog by e-mailing a post before confirming my address. Sure enough, I had overlooked a confirmation link in the original e-mail I got after registering on the site.
At this point, I was prepared that I might have to recompose my post as the old one was on the other blog which was created, but, after I confirmed the address, my posts were moved over to raddevon.posterous.com! I am very impressed that the service knew I would probably want the posts on the blog I registered via the site. If you plan to use the easy e-mail method to create your blog (or even if you plan to read the registration e-mail after your web registration), you probably won’t run into this issue.
Posterous takes the minimalist philosophy to its logical end. You don’t design and tweak your Posterous page. You have the option to write a bio and upload a profile picture, but that is it. The Myspace crowd may not like the inability to customize and personalize, but the Facebook crowd will appreciate the simplicity. Every Posterous blog looks the same so you can really concentrate on making posts rather than tweaking designs.
E-mail posting is also very minimalistic. Posterous doesn’t parse any HTML in your e-mail posts. Instead, that all gets put right into the post verbatim. It will automatically link URLs even if you don’t include the protocol (i.e. raddevon.com as opposed to http://raddevon.com/; both will be linked automatically). You can, however, edit existing posts or make new ones from a web interface at the Posterous site which gives you access to a slick WYSIWYG post editor that allows for linking words and some basic text formatting.
When I first register for a service, I have trouble discerning if it’s really a cool service or I’m just enamoured with the newness of it. Right now, I’m really excited about both Posterous and tumblr. I will continue to use the services at least for a little while so that I can write a proper comparison of the two. If you’re interested in seeing the comparison, subscribe to the blog so you will get it as soon as it’s posted!
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