As much as I love and enjoy new and exciting web services and applications I still find it as hard as the next person to “convert” to a new service. I can be often fiercely loyal to certain services and very hestitant to adopt new ones unless there is an obvious (and wide) gap of value discrepancy.
One such instance recently is Posterous, a simple service that lets you post pretty much anything. I’ve had an account with Posterous for a while but didn’t have a burning need to jump on to it decisively.
Until now.
But with recent updates to the service and the fact that I recently bought a new iPhone 3GS with video, I’ve been hunting for the perfect solution for uploading pretty much everything, which is exactly what Posterous does, and it does it well.
And yeah, I’ve only used it a handful of times; it’s just that good of a service after using it 5 times.
You see, I want to not only upload images and videos, I want them to connect to my Flickr account as well as provide an opportunity to tweet them out to Twitter and Facebook. I can do this as easily as emailing Post@Posterous.com with whatever media I’d like. It’ll automatically upload images and video to Flickr, tweeting them out to my Twitter, and updating Facebook.
All I had to do was add the services I wanted:
Not only that, I can also specify a specific service that I’d like to upload it to by just emailing the appropriate address. So, if I didn’t want to tweet out a video but I did want to make sure it was posted to Facebook and uploaded to Flickr I could email Flickr@Posterous.com and Facebook@Posterous.com instead of the catch-all email Post@Posterous.com.
It’s almost too easy and it’s impossible for me to forget the right email addresses:
Amazing. Seriously. This has been such a huge hit for me!
But the service gets better. Posterous also has built in metrics and analytics, showing you how many people commented, viewed, and starred your post.
Sweet!
Wow. Posterous even shortens the URL into something friendly like “Post.ly/_________” for you as well. Byebye Bit.ly!
What else do I like about it? Sheesh. Let me count the ways. A simple search for “uptime” issues didn’t reveal much. Twitpic is historically terrible with uptime and server issues. Posterous is doing just fine. You can also respond to comments via email directly, just like IntenseDebate Comments:
Doing a test or two revealed that the response posted near-instantaneously, which was awesome. What else? You can have custom domains, add your own Google Analytics package to get even more metrics and analytics, and the administrate and add other contributors to your Posterous (if you have friends, family, or whomever):
It’s gotten to the point where I like it so much I’m heavily considering buying a custom domain just for it. Yeah, that serious.
Ok, and perhaps one of the most important things is that Posterous posting works with pretty much all of the major desktop apps out there, including my favorite: Tweetie.
Is there anything more I need to say?
So, why are you still hanging onto Twitpic? What other services are you using that are far inferior to Posterous?
Let me know, because I think I found my winner. If you’ve got a Posterous account, let me know in the comments!
Hmm.. trying to decide if/how I'd use it. I have a 3G & have video capabilities – but not the ability to email the video. Trying to figure a work around to get it to Posterous….
Thanks John – got me thinkin'
sure thing! it's awesome.
I have had a posterous account for a while now and I do like the features of the service. What is definitely missing however is better integration with the various Twitter apps. Sure you can send (email) you pic to Posterous and have it show up as a link in your tweet, but there is no native integration directly with the app like there is with Twitpic and others (I use UberTwitter on the BlackBerry). The other thing that is missing on the Twitter app side is the preview ability. Many apps recognize Twit pic links and give you an in-stream preview of the pic without the need to click in a link.
If they start doing that with Posterous, I think it's popularity would rise.
Gregory,
Certainly some room for improvement… but I love what they've got so far.
Good thoughts, thanks!
SimplyTweet for the iPhone does that. Posting of multiple photos to a single Posterous post and builtin photo viewer for Posterous posts with photos. More Posterous integration coming very soon. Stay tuned!
SWEET! Thanks for this.
Dude, you are so right. I love posterous. Amazing that it publishes to my flickr, twitter, and facebook all at the same time. Glad you made the leap.
don’t know why it wasn’t using intensedebate there for a minute, but that last comment was from me.
word. up!
I love Posterous and I use it for my blog. But for just posting a photo to twitter or adding to flickr, I’m not sure it’s the best fit for the job. You may want to look at something that specializes in sharing media like http://pixelpipe.com, http://tweetphoto.com, or my favorite: http://tarpipe.com. (flickr itself can post to twitter now too)
But really, ANYTHING is better than twitpic.
that's for sure. twitpic has let me down…
Ok. I"m in love w. Posterous.
Setup Google Analytics
Was able to use PixelPipe to get the videos form my iPhone to Posterous.
Poserous Comment system is SWEEET!!!
The ability to send the info 1 place – and have it posted in other locations is AWESOME.
Now, if I could only change the colors on my Posterous page – it'd be 100% perfect.
hehe. it's somewhat “spartan” isnt' it?
Oddly enough I've started testing it out recently too. If nothing else to support Y-Combinator http://ycombinator.com/ which is the place it launched from. I do like it. I'm trying to figure out if I want to use it for posting to my blog or not.
But it certainly is handy. Good choice!
those guys at y are awesome.
I'm looking at everyone elses Posterous site – & they have customized the title & even some their side bar. but how? Like Transition Pete – http://transitionpete.posterous.com/ – at the top the title reads "Transition Pete" then even has a subtitle. Mine just says "Tattood's Posterous". Umm…how do I change that?
Settings…!
oook…and I'm an idiot. Nothing new there.
Now, what about editing the sidebar?
prayer.
I've been playing around with posterous… not really do anything with it… but saw all the features now…. looks nice – im in.
"So, if I didn’t want to tweet out a video but I did want to make sure it was posted to Facebook and uploaded to Flickr I could email Flickr@Posterous.com and Facebook@Posterous.com instead of the catch-all email Post@Posterous.com."
What's great about Posterous is that there's a work-around to even this. All you have to do is email facebook+flickr@posterous.com, and it will post to just those two.
I agree – I've only used it a few times, and already found it to be amazing.
Caleb,
I was WONDERING how i could do that…! that's awesome!
Been using Posterous for some time now, I like it for mutli-posting. Haven't added video yet but pics are big a clear from the iphone! Glad to see more people using it
I've been using Posterous for a while for things I didn't want to put on my normal blog (usually articles or stuff like that I wanted to share on twitter that were in emails, etc). And since it integrated with everything, I've been using the post to everywhere functionality and loving it.
I don't really do a lot with pics and videos, so haven't used the flickr integration as much as I could, but will use it more once I get an iPhone. At the moment, the apps/sites I use (Mixero on computers, dabr on phone) only have Twitpic integration…I'm sure it will change, or I'll change…or something…
Nice…I haven't used mine very much either. But now I'm sold and am not sitting on it anymore.
rhett
I'm still at the tinkering stage….I may move there soon
John, just made this switch myself (My Posterous). One thing that I found extremely helpful was that I had over 350 items posted to my Tumblog and they all imported seamlessly and easily. Love their bookmarklet too. Awesome stuff!
dude, that's a great idea. i've been toying with the import… thanks for that brandon!
The only problem is – you can email video less then 1 minutes. What if you take a video with more then 1 minute of video and want to upload it? Now that would be awesome!
I'm going to try it out though!
dude. it's aweosm.e i just splice it up.
Hey John. Great post. I see you're posting most things to Twitter in a dedicated desktop app. Are you sending your Twitter updates to Facebook as well? I'm sending my Tweets to Facebook, so that means the photos & videos I'm posting with Posterous (send to Twitter & FB) are showing up in my Facebook feed twice – once from Posterous as a video or photo, which is how I really want them to show up in Facebook, and again as a status update with link from Twitter.
very cool. yeah, sometimes i'm sending them to just one service though.
Great, detailed post, John. I've been a Posterous fanboy since it launched a year back. And I'm happy to not that, a year since then, Posterous has lived up to it's core message – getting better everyday.
I recently shared my own bit of Posterous love on my Posterous (http://aviraj.com). Though not as detailed about features like yours, I touched upon a couple of other reasons why I love Posterous. Do read: http://aviraj.com/man-i-love-posterous
Cheers,
Aviraj
I just keep hearing great things about Posturous. A Youth Pastor at one of our churches is using it to keep a livestream of events going for parents while the group is at centrifuge this summer. I thought it was brilliant since you can post just about anything to it!
definitely! i'm loving it.
Will be checking this out after the weekend. Thanks for your ninja knowledge.
sure thing
Follow up ?. bit.ly was great for posting links to websites I wanted people to check out. Do I now have to email those to posterous, or is there an easier way to do this? Thanks.
haha, nevermind. I just found the bookmarket widget. Awesome.
the "attach-multiple-photos-and-we-turn-it-into-a-sweet-gallery" feature really sold me. so simple, love the *desktop* tweetie app integration also…
I just switched today from WordPress because the free blog was good and all but I wasn't sure what I wanted and gave Posterous a try. I like it! I love the idea of sending my post to all the other social networking/photo sites etc. because it really saves time and promotes my blog to my friends at the same time.
I'm hoping I will prefer this over WordPress.
I love love love posterous. That is about all I use to update all my sites. What used to take forever (and it just did not usually happen) now takes just a few minutes. And, since it works so well with Twitter, I am able to get so many more hits that I did with my blog alone.
I’m sold! http://jameseaton.posterous.com/
that's a great point. lots of traffic there…!
posterous is the bomb and i found out about it HERE on church crunch back in late June…in fact…i was in michigan that week …
I've been using Posterous for a couple months and love it! Not only has it made integrating my online presence easier, it's also driven traffic to my business website. I had no idea that I could use it as my picture service on Tweetie – now I'm even more sold. Thanks for a good comprehensive post on this!
http://elevate.posterous.com/
Sure thing!