Internet Trendsettr

Harold, Chip and I went to a talk at The Yard, and then walked over to a nearby hipster spot for red wine. (Oh, and food.) We were, of course, talking shop. My friend Chip thinks in URLs and apps.  If someone tells Chip that a freelancer spends more time negotiating gigs and chasing checks than actually working, he’ll be on his phone checking if Where’sMyCheck.com is taken yet. You tell him you’re on schedule to release a new mob, and he’s checking for MutantBoar.com, ReleaseTheMutantBoar, or MutantBoarVsPlayer.com are up yet. And he usually follows through on the silliness – Chip established up SadInternetBoys.com about an hour after a bar joke.

So, it’s no surprise that we found ourselves talking online trends, and the awesomely popular two-click blog-sharing of Tumblr. Although there is constant chatter about Missing E or why Tumblr’s interface has changed again, like, seriously, is it Facebook or something?,  Tumblr’s user numbers continue to increase, and most metrics like active accounts, posts per day, and so forth point to Tumblr is taking over the world. I think the tipping point for me was the NPR Tumblr.

“Actually, I discovered Tumblr through you,” I told Harold.

“Really? Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever been an internet trendsetter before.”

“Oh, yeah.” I said, “I think I Googled you once after we’d chatted at Merscom, and I found your Tumblr blog. And then I thought, what kind of stupid freaking blog doesn’t let people leave comments?”