Tumblr Introduces Explore

While this move does add some level of curation to the blogging platform, we mourn the loss (or at least visibility) of the Directory. If there’s an easy way to uncover it, we don’t see it — right now typing in www.tumblr.com/directory seems to be the only way to access it. Moreover, this move still does little to make blogs more visible to those outside the Tumblr community.

Lately, we’ve seen the platform kicking up curation efforts with fashion week coverage and curated topic pages, but we think more could be done to make Tumblr blogs more accessible.

For instance, Tumblr’s homepage exists as wasted real estate — a blank call to sign up that offers very little to those not familiar with the service. Now, if — like Twitter — that page featured some of these popular topics, tags and blogs we can see more blogs gaining attention and more people drawn to the service.

I agree, and I think the curated topic pages are a step in the right direction, but Tumblr needs to make them more visible to the outside world. If I am completely new to Tumblr, I have no clue how to get to the Fashion Week content. I like how Tumblr developed a nice walkthrough the service on the front page but it should also highlight the actual content behind it in some way.

It seems like much of what Tumblr has is hidden away and you have to really work hard to find it. Especially if you’re a new user.

The Meetups and Themes, for instance, are mere tiny links on the footer.

If I can throw in my two cents as well, a couple of other things:

Tumblr is still very US Centric. That’s understandable, as it is an American company providing a platform. However, I would like to see a directory of European blogs as well and I am sure others would want the same for Asian, Arab, Latin American blogs as well. Moreover, I would like to see European content curated in the same way as the American centric content is (HELLO, Tumblr, if you are reading this, I can help).
Along the same lines, can we have country directories for the different European/ Asian/ etc Tumblrs? It would be great to foster a sense of local community and promote an easier reach based on common interests
An a question: who decided on which tags were relevant for the curated content? Can we give feedback on that? Just as I mentioned the local directories, can we also have a say in other topics? Can we have a “feminism” tag curated as well to find new people or posts that are relevant to our interests (insert LOL Cat face here)?

I am sure there are more points, but these are the ones that come to mind right now.

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