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Amanda and Michael's Ruby Blog

By Amanda & Michael Morin, About.com Guides to Ruby

Something in Between Blogging and Micro-Blogging?

Thursday November 13, 2008
Handcrafted's application, Jot.ly , was the Rails Rumble 2008 winner in the Appearance category. I can certainly see why; the visual appeal of the site is undeniable. The professional look is similar in style to sites like Twitter and Facebook, which I'm sure is the intent. After all, Jot.ly is designed to be the middle ground between micro-blogging and full-on blogging. They're calling it "micro-hybrid" blogging.

Conceptually, it's spot on. While Twitter is taking off as a quick way to keep in touch with friends and network with colleagues, it has its limitations, including a maximum word count per post and the proliferation of self-promoting updates interspersed among personal updates. Blogging, too, has its limitations. Not everybody takes the time to or even wants to create a full blog post daily. So what if you want to say more than you can on Twitter without clogging the network, but don't want to maintain a full blog?

That, in a nutshell, is Jot.ly's middle ground. Ideally, users can sign up for an account (either with or without OpenID) and start micro-blogging. There are, however, some glitches still in the application. Many people have reported that they never received an activation email, making it impossible to log in and get started. Though I didn't have this problem, there was a longer delay in receiving it than I had expected. As with other Rails Rumble applications, these little hiccups are to be expected since a 48-hour development period is such a small window.

In any event, Jot.ly is definitely one to follow, as I think many people are ready to start "micro-hybrid" blogging.

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