SmartLinks and SmartLink Widgets for Tumblr

by Fraser on December 15, 2007 · 4 comments

Tumblr has been described as a “quick and dirty stream of consciousness.” The platform is able to elegantly present an unorganized, scrambled collection of information, creating a coherent “live autobiography” thanks to its clean and minimalistic design.

SmartLinks and our SmartLink Widgets compliment the ethos of tumblelogs and are ideal matches for tumblr sites.

SmartLinks pull in relevant information from across the web and presents it cleanly and simply on tumblelogs, allowing readers to discover the best that the web has to offer for the particular object directly on the site. To see an example of this check out Alex’s Tumblr site where he talks about James Blunt’s All the Lost Souls.

 

james blunt 12 31 07

Alex simply linked to the Amazon page for the album and a SmartLink was automatically inserted. Now his readers can create a Last.fm or Pandora playlist for the album, read top reviews, save it to social networks, and discover more about the album on top sites around the web. All accessed directly from Alex’s site and all automatically and instantly completed.

SmartLink Widgets make a lot of sense for Tumblr sites and help add to the live autobiography angle. Tumblr publishers can easily add their Netflix Queue, their Last.fm top albums, or their Amazon Wish List to their tumblelog and pull in personalized information from those sites. Each widget is powered by RSS so it automatically updates and all objects within the widget include SmartLinks allowing readers to find out more about the media you’re consuming. Again, all automatically and all respecting the simplistic and elegant design of tumblelogs.

You can preview widgets on Alex’s personal tumblr site and on Lazy Smart. You can install the widgets from the widget gallery. And to enable SmartLinks on your site follow the new Tumblr instructions here.

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

Alex December 16, 2007 at 11:39 am

I just changed my Netflix widget to be more compact and it looks even better. Check it out: http://alexiskold.tumblr.com/

Fraser December 17, 2007 at 2:23 pm

Some nice personalized and popular widgets on this tumblr site: http://maddux.tumblr.com/

Esau December 30, 2007 at 11:45 pm

“Denis’ tumblr site” link is dead.

Alex December 30, 2007 at 11:54 pm

Thanks Esau, we will replace. I guess those blogs come and go rather quickly!

Leave a Comment

Previous post: Facebook Group Update

Next post: Update On Wish List Giving