Jonathan's Digital Garden

Sometime around 2008, while blogging was still at its peak, a service was launched called Posterous. It simplified the way people blog. Its most notable feature was its simplicity. You don't need to log in to a dashboard to write articles, and you can be completely anonymous.

What is Posterous anyway?

According to Wikipedia, Posterous was a simple blogging platform that started in May 2008. Posting or updating in Posterous was similar to other blogging platforms. You could log in to your account and use the website's rich text editor, which was designed for mobile blogging. You could also send an email with attachments like photos, MP3s, documents, and videos.

Posterous supported automatic posting to other social media tools, such as Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook. Aside from automatic posting, it also has a built-in Google Analytics package, supported custom themes, and custom domains. It also has its own URL shortening service, which, as of March 2010, could be used to shorten URLs when posting to Twitter.

Posterous was praised for its simplicity and was the leading free application for lifestreaming. Twitter acquired Posterous on March 12, 2012, for an undisclosed amount, but the move was only to acquire its staff. It looks as if Twitter is not interested in the Posterous platform at all. On the very same day, Posterous agreed to shut their service down.

On February 15, 2013, Posterous announced they would finally shut down on April 30, 2013. Users would be able to back up or export the contents to other blogging platforms.

As of May 2013, Posterous' founders Garry Tan and Brett Gibson developed a similar but paid service called Posthaven. They pledged that they would never be acquired and were not looking for any investors.

In April 2020, Thomas Marban launched a semi-official successor of the email-to-blog model at Flipso.