Online blogging tools that are designed to make things as easy as possible for anyone to publish online have been around at least a decade and, by now, "blogging" is well-established as a popular form of one- or few-to-many publishing. But a new crop of tools aims to make things even easier by enabling individuals to quickly share several types of common content with others.

There isn't an accepted name for this type of content. If Wordpress et al are used for what we traditionally think of as "blogging," and Twitter is "micro-blogging," these new tools represent something in between those two extremes. Because the focus of these platforms is on easy, quick sharing of content with a group of peers or "followers," I've settled on the term "quick blogging."

(Tumblr, refers to its content as a "tumblog," leading to the terms "tumblogging" or "tumble blogging," but that's too product-centric; e.g. "kleenex" vs "tissue.")

Quick blogging tools are characterized by two main features that set them apart from more traditional blogging tools. One is a focus on specific types of content. Instead of every post being a generic entity, with the author responsible for including the necessary media and formatting, quick blogging tools allow you share specific items like quotes, photos, videos, and links. Each type of item is automatically presented in a suitable format for its content type, and it's possible to use type-specific styling in pre-made or custom templates.

Another main feature is the ease and speed in which the platforms allow users to post new items for others to view. In most cases, items can be posted in as little as two clicks—though there are differences in the two main platforms, Tumblr and Posterous, that we examine here. In fact, the differences in sharing options are a sticking point, which may lead you to choose one service over another.

I like posterous better. The conclusion (as said by a tumblr guy) is that posterous is "engineered" while tumblr is "designed." The statement may be apt. Posterous does need to get more bells and whistles.

Just for the record, I've never posted by email to posterous.