Tumblr Follows Facebook in Taking Inspiration from the Pinterest Design
WebiMax Contributor, March 26, 2012
The reason for the immense appeal of the social media site Pinterest lies in its basis on image-sharing. We are living in a society that is increasingly becoming more drawn to pictures than to words. People are gravitating much more readily to websites that feature many images versus those that contain a lot of written content. Anyone who has been paying attention to the evolution of website designs over the past several years can definitely attest to this growing trend among internet users.
The image-sharing Pinterest has only proven to be the latest manifestation of this shift in people's preferences for how they want information and messages delivered to them online. The success of Pinterest has served as a sign to other websites that they must re-format in order to maintain their own appeal to internet users. One of the most notable websites to accordingly adapt thus far has been the social networking giant Facebook, which introduced its very similar format Timeline at the beginning of this year.
According to a recent Mashable article, it now appears that Tumblr is moving in the same Pinterest-headed direction. The blogging site that rose to internet popularity as an image-sharing online community – and which could be considered a predecessor of Pinterest – is offering nine free themes that all bear a strong resemblance to the Pinterest layout of images on a uniform background that serves as a "pinboard."
The Mashable article offers a slideshow of the nine Tumblr themes, which bear titles like "Kinley Lite," "Nominal," and "Tessellate." Some of them look more like a mosaic, while others are more fluid in design. All of them, however, feature rows of images that can be scrolled over from top to bottom, very much in Pinterest-like fashion.
Businesses which are already using Tumblr in their SEO campaigns should not only add Pinterest to their lineup of social media marketing outlets, but should consider re-formatting their Tumblr blogs to what is current now. Staying on top of the changing trends in design can make a world of difference in enhancing the marketing value of an online property.