Tumblr Rolling Out Fan Mail for Private Messaging

Tumblr is starting to roll out a new private messaging option for users, Fan Mail, the blogging platform company announced today.

“I’m very pleased to introduce Fan Mail, a beautiful new way to share those sweet, inspiring, or otherwise thoughtful notes with your favorite bloggers,” Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp wrote in a Fan Mail-themed note.

You'll soon be able to send unlimited messages to your favorite bloggers via...

Click to read more ...

Forget Lean Forward and Lean Back -- It's Curl Up

By Jason Calacanis

For the better part of the last two decades we've compared the lean-forward experience of computers with the lean-back experience of television.

At Mahalo today, as we were brainstorming new apps, we discussed an idea I had for a new app. Our president Jason Rapp asked, "Well, do you see it as a lean forward or a lean back experience?"

I thought for a minute and said, "Neither, it's more of a tablet experience. What would you call that? We need a name for that."

Then it hit me. Duh?

"It's the curl-up experience!" I blurted out.

Everyone nodded in complete understanding.

In fact, the most important experience in media is no longer...

Click to read more ...

Survey Says 92% of Political Ad Buyers Choose Facebook Over Twitter

When it comes to advertising political campaigns on social services, Facebook is the tool of choice for political ad buyers, according to software company Strata. So if you start to realize there are more political ads on Facebook compared to other networks, you can't say we didn't warn you.

Strata recently conducted a survey that found 92% of political ad buyer respondents choose to spend money on Facebook ahead of Twitter (46%), YouTube (31%), LinkedIn (31%) and Google+ (23%). Overall, digital ad spending has doubled since the 2010 election.

When we recently logged into Facebook, we immediately noticed an anti-Mitt Romney ad by...

Click to read more ...

Facebook's User Growth Continues to Decrease while Google+ Adds 625K Users Daily

Facebook's growth rate for its user base is continuing to decrease while Google+'s user base is growing, and at the same time when Google+ just experienced its biggest traffic month of all time.

As All Facebook reports, in the 1,001 days from April 1, 2009 through Dec. 28, 2011, Facebook added 609M, with averages of around 600K per day and seven per second. But according to Optim.al, that growth rate has tapered off.
 
While Facebook's growth soared to 8.39 users per second from July 2010 through March 2011, it slowed to 7.02 users per second from March 2011 through Sept. 2011. From Sept. 2011 through Dec. 2011, growth dropped to five users per second.

Last month, an unofficial Googler revealed how Google+'s growth is accelerating, noting how it recently passed 62M users and adds 625K users per day. Still, Facebook has...

Click to read more ...

Watch SimpleGeo and Sprint.ly Co-Founder Joe Stump on TWiST Live at 1pm PT

[ Image courtesy of Joe Stump via creative commons license. ]

Today on This Week in Startups, SimpleGeo co-founder Joe Stump will speak with Host Jason Calacanis about his newest venture, software development service Sprint.ly.

Joe left SimpleGeo, along with co-founder Matt Galligan, after Urban Airship acquired the company for a reported $3M in Oct. 2011. Prior to the acquisition, SimpleGeo raised $10M in funding from Ron Conway, Kevin Rose, Chris Sacca, Timothy Ferriss, Shawn Fanning and Gary Vaynerchuk.
 
Before launching SimpleGeo, Joe co-founded...

Click to read more ...