Stylish, attractive and concise – Tumblr is a free blogging platform that is a hairline between WordPress’s mainstream blogging and Twitter’s micro blogging. Tumblr’s blogs are simply called tumblrs instead of blogs.

With more focus on content and an unbiased platform that used to remain common for both advertisers and writers, Tumblr has been known for extending its platform to users to blog about several things.

Sign up & Dashboard
Tumblr is as snappy as a flash in getting bloggers up and running – new and old. The sign up takes literally a minute to put the whole thing together i.e., if you’re done choosing a name for your blog. Tumblr’s dashboard on the other hand, is a lot more to handle for mainstream bloggers who are used to in-depth menus as opposed to Tumblr’s upfront ones. The main feed on the front page is much like any other blogging platform. Subscribed blogs show up among popular posts in the main feed.

Themes
Tumblr’s key feature revolves around simple, minimalistic designs. This means every Tumblr user has the option to make his/her blog look as sleek as the Tumblr page itself. The themes vary from minimalistic to visual-centric. With many themes apt for the wordy writer and the photo poster, Tumblr’s themes are designed to give every Tumblr a visually appealing experience.

When it comes down to actual blogging?
While it may boost a writer to post more concise texts, I have to say it can also be a great platform for the wordy writer. I have used Tumblr for both photo posts and lengthy texts. It has worked beautifully and I find it rather simple to use once you get familiar with the Tumblr dashboard that is very unique from the rest. If you expect it to be as concise as emailing your posts, head over to Posterous a far more suitable option for email bloggers.

Connect to Yahoo
This is purely from a business point-of-view. One of the biggest cons in my opinion, is the absence of helping users connect to Yahoo to find friends who already use Tumblr.  However, not all mergers are as smooth from day one. We’ll have to wait before Yahoo makes use of this hip tool to be cool.

How kid-friendly is it?
Compared to competitor platforms, Tumblr tends to rate high on the provocative scale. There are many public blogs on the loose that makes Tumblr a site to guard your under-18s from. While Tumblr can be socially educative for the older teens and targeted toward 21-somethings, it may not be the best site to introduce blogging to teens without parental guidance.

Leave your comment
The only way readers can connect with tumblrs are through the usual “I heart this post” and “Like” features. One can also comment using Disqus,Facebook or Google logins. However, there is no way to leave an anonymous comment without registering or logging into your Disqus which defeats the purpose of anonymity. This is a huge minus for non-tumblr users to follow or connect with tumblr blogs.

What’s new Post-Yahoo?
We can see beautiful photos curtain the background of the Tumblr Login/Signup page since Yahoo’s acquisition of Tumblr. It is clear Yahoo is trying to bridge the gap amongst its services. Fusing the best of its services can make it well-connected and more rounded like Google users have today with many Google products.

Another change is Tumblr’s inclusion of ads on user’s dashboards since the acquisition to generate more revenue in contrast to the previous mode of operation that required commercial businesses to create their own Tumblrs and compete with editorial tumblrs for page views.

To conclude, Tumblr is currently the hottest thing in the blogosphere. I honestly hope Yahoo does not meddle too much in how Tumblr works. The beauty of Tumblr has been its complete detachment to many things commercial.  What I would like to see more in Tumblr is a well-rounded platform that combines the modest ideas of Yahoo with the non-commercialized side of Tumblr, have a better connect with users and open up the space to all.