The last thing someone like me needs is another blog or time-vortex web 2.0-esque app to play with. Still, that didn’t stop me from signing up for both Tumblr and Weebly, and you know what? I’m not sorry sorry I did. If you include my last.fm account, you’ve got an accurate picture of how I’ve spent my “free” time on the web for the past few days.
For starters Weebly is the simplest way I’ve encountered yet to put up a really quick website that actually has some practical widget functionality. Sure it doesn’t work so well with Safari, but I can live with that and I’m a mac user. It’s about as easy to set up as say, iWeb, though admittedly (and deliberately) less customizable. However, what it lacks it total artistic freedom, it more than makes up for in basic usability. Those nifty stats counters and fun widgets you can’t use in WordPress? Not a problem for Weebly. Wants ads on your site? No one’s stopping you. If you need to put together a workable site in a hurry, you could do far worse than weebly and it’s multitude of handy ready-to go templates and functions. Plus you can map it to you own domain name if you choose. I put up a site in a matter of hours. Why? Did I need to do this? Well, no. I can’t say that I have any pressing need for this site right now. But it’s there should I need it. I’m a happy camper.
Tumblr has become the repository for everything I don’t really want to keep or need to refer back to, things that aren’t good candidates for del.icio.us. They call it a digital scrapbook, and that makes perfect sense. To make life simpl,e it comes with a convenient toolbar button that makes scrapbooking as you surf easier than dodging porn pop-ups. Again, do I need a digital scrapbook? Well no. Hell, I didn’t even know I wanted one until I saw it in action. But I figure impulsive social webbing is infinitely less detrimental to my wallet than a comparable trip to the mall or compulsive want-list making at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.com
Which has brought me to a realization. All it takes for me to achieve digital bliss is an RSS feed, some widgets, a ‘Post it’ button and a dream. It’s my own little digital-viral nirvana, and the masses don’t even have to come. I get pleasure simply in the building.
