|
REBLOGGIN' REVOLUTION
How taking others'' online content for your own use is no longer considered stealing
|
|
Way back when GeoCities and
56k
were respected terms and not the punch lines of tech geek jokes, plenty of website coders got rich by stealing content and throwing it online with a few advertisements. But then Web surfers and search engines revolted against them, making recycled content a taboo practice (and the bottom of search queries). Times have changed though, as recently we've been seeing a huge boom in reblogging, with online aggregators and digests that resemble glorified bookmark pages having become accepted - and in the case of Tumblr's "reblog" button, welcomed - forms of blogging. Below are a couple of excellent reblogging sites to show you how the pros do it, as well as the plug-ins you need to get on board the trend:
|
Katherine
:
An expertly curated collection of vintage advertising graphics, women's fashion, great music that you've never heard, hilarious videos, and beautiful images; this Chicago-based site is a perfect example of how reblogging should be done on Tumblr. Katherine lets her posts, like
this one on cartoon hair
, speak for themselves; she rarely writes much more than a sentence or two, letting you decide who she is for yourself, instead of her telling you who she wishes she was, as do so many bloggers today. Our guess is that she's an unabashed
Jo Bros fan
, with an appreciation for the minds of
1950s tweens
.
|
This Recording
: Editor Alex Carnevale has also mastered the fine art of online curation in this Tumblr companion to his
online magazine
of the same name. Carnevale's posts run the gamut, but examples include dramatic Western images, film stills, vintage black-and-white
aerial shots of Manhattan
, and
stunning nature photography
- just what we need with the solstice looming. He posts not to lay claim to the images, but rather to share with readers what he finds inspiring in the hope of doing the same for them. And for anyone into art, fashion and striking imagery, you'll be finding great stuff that you can reblog in your own aggregator or, if you still don't have one, your Facebook page.
|
Reblogging Plug-ins:
Most rebloggers use
Tumblr
because it can automatically source posts from other Tumblrs. But even if you don't use Tumblr, you can use plug-ins that will help you start defining yourself with other people's work in no time. WordPress' is probably the simplest one; just follow
these easy directions
to install a reblogging tab into any WordPress account. Then there is the free
reBlog hack
, which creates an RSS feed of your favorite sites that will let you reblog posts, complete with site credits and links. Now, wasn't that simple?
|
* trendcentral articles are designed to be trend reports, not endorsements * The Intelligence Group is a trend-forecasting and marketing Consultancy focused on Gen X, Gen Y and Tweens. For more information on our services, or to subscribe to our syndicated studies, The Cassandra Report, Tween Intelligence, Latino Intelligence, and Mom Intelligence, contact Liz Gray at 212-277-5244 or via email at egray@intelg.com.
|