Imagine logging into any service on the web and being told that it’s probably a good idea to stop using a browser extension that you’ve installed. That’s what happened to one of our faithful readers, Derek.

The Missing e Chrome extension, which has a name that pokes fun at Tumblr’s lack of a second vowel, adds a ton of functionality to your experience on the social blogging platform. It’s quite popular too, with the Chrome Web Store reporting 258,408 users.

When Derek logged into Tumblr today, he was greeted with this overwhelming pop-up:

In the prompt, the company says that it loves developers who create add-on experiences for its site, but it creates issues that are a “burden” on its support staff. In particular, Tumblr says that Missing e may cause data loss, privacy, and performance issues that it can’t support. It sounds like one of those TV commercials for medications where they rattle off all of the side-effects they may cause.

Third-party extensions and hacks are a part of the web, perhaps Tumblr should focus on building new features or its own official “app store” instead of whining about support and server issues.

Following politicians on Twitter can be as boring as watching paint dry on some days, but a new app pulls together tweets from both parties, and shows a whole host of trends about what they’re tweeting about.

PolitickerUSA is a simple app that displays tweets from every politician that uses the Twitter platform. At the very least, the service is the best social list of every U.S. Senator and Representative on the web.

You can watch tweets fly by in real-time, or you can filter them by your favorite politico.

One Nation, Under Tweets

PolitickerUSA is extremely well designed, and splits politicians on the homepage by their political party affiliation. The tweets flow in, and you can click them to drive you straight to Twitter.

Where PolitickerUSA gets really interesting is with the trends that it puts together into a cloud, based on mentions of words and phrases in the politicians’ tweets.

You can check trends by party, or by individual politician. These features make the site extremely useful, especially around voting time. If you’re not sure where a politician stands on important matters, getting a 50-100 tweet snapshot of what they’re talking about will give you a good idea.

You’re given a drop down of all of the politicians listed on the PolitickerUSA site, so you can literally spend hours going through all of the data. The clouds definitely help with displaying the important sentiments, thus skipping the boring process of actually reading the tweets.

One the homepage, you can do a filter search if you have a specific interest, and you’ll be shown the matching tweet from each side of the political fence. If you’re super into politics, or you’re trying to pay more attention, PolitickerUSA will be your best resource for up-to-the-minute political information.

With Tumblr helping us make phone calls to our Representatives about the “Stop Online Piracy Act”, this app can help us tweet to them about it too.

➤ PolitickerUSA

To combat the ill-conceived “Stop Online Piracy Act”, or commonly referred to as “SOPA” on the Internet, Tumblr asked its users to make phone calls to their U.S. Representatives to make their feelings known.

Tumblr users complied, to the tune of 87,834 phone calls in one day.

In a blog post from the Tumblr staff today, the company had this to say about the initiative:

Yesterday we did a historic thing. We generated 87,834 phone calls to U.S. Representatives in a concerted effort to protect the Internet. Extraordinary. There’s no doubt that we’ve been heard.

So just to keep you updated: The well-intentioned, but immensely flawed “Stop Online Piracy Act” is still in the House Judiciary Committee. The hearing was yesterday and now members will debate and bring amendments to the bill. The Committee will reconvene in a few weeks — the date has yet to be scheduled. Nothing has been brought to a final vote. Everything is still very much in play. We’ll keep you posted on what’s going on and what you can do to help. But for now, we want to thank you.

The act, which would give private companies and the government more power to overseeing what you download from the Internet, is currently being discussed in the House of Representatives.

Tumblr put together an amazing app that let you put in your phone number and area code, which would then generate a phone call to you. Once your phone rings, you’re given some talking points about SOPA, and are then connected to your local Representative. The company used Twilio to power the dialing app.

Will you fight the Stop Online Piracy Act with companies like Tumblr? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Like them or not, Klout has been around for three years and is continuing its quest to become the standard of influence online. Competitors have been announced, but have not yet launched.

Today I sat down with Klout CEO Joe Fernandez to discuss the future of Klout, and what the company has learned along the way.

Fernandez would love to see Klout scores rolling along the screen with Tweets on networks like CNN one day. But why? What is it that makes us want some sort of validation before we see someone or something as being credible?

Fernandez simply told me:

TV, Radio, and News are measured.

Since sites like Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, Tumblr, and YouTube let us become “broadcasters”, Fernandez feels that people should be measured as well. The data we put into these sites needs to be cleaned up and normalized, and Fernandez thinks Klout is the one that can do it best.

Do we really need a score to validate ourselves?

The problem that I’ve had with Klout is how the loudest users have talked it up and beat it down. Early adopters are a blessing and a curse for any service, but especially one that brings out everyone’s inner ego.

Fernandez shares that the company receives emails and calls all of the time arguing that a person should be more influential in one thing rather than another, or that their score is completely off.

That’s the mystery though, nobody knows exactly what goes into the Klout score.

Google doesn’t tell you how its algorithm works.

This is what Joe Fernandez told me when I discussed Google’s approach to search engine relevance with him and how it relates to Klout’s business. This statement is true, and while SEO experts continually try to game Google’s algorithm, Google continues to update things which completely changes the game in real-time. Klout takes the same approach, and has been evolving its own scoring algorithm for the past three years.

He shared:

What we learn from people like Google, is that every decision comes with an unintended consequence. You have to keep making changes.

How does Klout change Customer Service?

Fernandez and I discussed Customer Service, and I brought up my own concerns about brands using Klout scores to lazily keep those with large followings happy by treating them differently. Companies not paying attention to those with lower Klout scores is not companies intention at all, though.

Fernandez points out that this segmentation already happens in most large-scale businesses, and Klout merely wants to help people learn that everyone has influence and how they can harness their own. The Perks service is a way that Klout lets users gain something from their never-ending updates on the internet. Fernandez says that 80% of the companies who have done a Klout Perk comes back to them with a new Perk.

Comfort through transparency and education

Fernandez discussed Klout’s heavy engineering focus:

Our DNA is science and engineering.

This “DNA” has caused some to attack Klout, wondering why one company should have so much data, and if it’s really worth it for people get so competitive about it. Actually, people are getting past just checking out their Klout Score. We’re told that over Fifty percent of users dig deeper into Klout, showing a little more engagement than the company’s early days.

Now that the company has grown to over forty employees, it is now focusing on marketing and education. Tomorrow the company will launch “Klout Score Insights”, which promises to give users a bit of an explanation when their score goes up or down. This type of feature can go a long way for transparency, as Fernandez explains:

Being “the standard” means people need to feel comfortable and have enough insight. Score Insight has been in development for five months.

Klout not just for Twitter users

Klout isn’t just about Twitter anymore, as the CEO shared with us that most of Klout’s growth in the past six months is coming from Facebook users, and that user base is quickly overtaking the Twitter early adopter set.

There are still a few things I’d like to see from Klout. I believe that more education and services are needed for the businesses themselves, especially since people are starting to add their Klout score to resumes and personal websites. Businesses should also have Klout scores, which would serve as a Better Business Beauru service for the connected crowd.

When asked why Fernandez chose the word “influence” to describe Klout, even though its an extremely subjective concept, he said:

Influence is such a lightning rod and could mean anything, and when I said it, people paid attention.

Will insights and continual tweaks to its algorithm be enough to show us that Klout is a data driven company and not a popularity leader board? Joe Fernandez thinks so, and we’ll see first hand tomorrow when the algorithm changes, and when we’re given some insights into why our scores have soared or dropped.

One of the funnest things to do on the internet is share an animated .gif file. It’s faster than making someone watch a video clip, and it’s a great way to express yourself. For the most part, the same stale animated gifs make the rounds, ranging from cats falling off of chairs to clips from famous movies.

GifBoom wants you to be able to make your own animated gifs and share them easily. The app for iOS was developed by the company Tapmojo, and is a Tumblr users new best friend. The app is free to download.

Creating an animated gif

Creation is simple with GifBoom. You can choose to use pictures or videos already on your camera roll to piece together a seamless animated graphic. Alternatively you can take new pictures to make your animation, and the app will automatically take photos every second for 20 seconds.

Once your 20 seconds are up, you can choose which frames to included in your animation and then your animated gif is complete. You can even choose filter effects and backgrounds, as well as the frame rate to control how fast the animated gifs display. It will end up looking something like this:

Sharing your animated gif

This is where GifBoom shines. You can share your creation via Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, via MMS, or just email the link. Unfortunately, we’ll have to manually share a link or upload direct to Google+, since the service doesn’t have write-enabled APIs as of yet. GifBoom is also very social in a way that Instagram is. There is a stream of popular gifs, as well as recently created ones. You can “like” a gif or leave a comment, much like you can on Instagram.

Animated gifs are certainly a niche interest, but are very popular on sites like Tumblr. With the GifBoom app, it’s really simple to create the animations but it remains to be seen if animated gifs can get anywhere near as popular as photo or video sharing.

Other apps that have similar features are Picflick, but it lacks the social aspect of GifBoom and costs .99 cents.

If you’ve ever thought above moving your blog from one platform to the other, it can be rather tricky. Importing creates duplications of posts and a long list of other issues.

Tumblr Importer will import all of your Tumblr blog into a self-hosted WordPress blog in a snap.

Tumblr Importer:

• Correctly handles post formats
• WP-Cron based background importing: start it up, then come back later to see how far it’s gotten
• Duplicate checking, will not create duplicate imported posts
• Imports posts, drafts, and pages
• Media Sideloading (for audio, video, and image posts)

Keeping all of your images, audio, and video intact is key, as Tumblr is popular for its media posts. Tumblr Importer even brings all of the stored items onto your new WordPress host. For example, my blog is currently hosted at Tumblr and contains mostly video and photo embeds.

To install, all you have to do is download the plugin, put it in its correct folder, and activate it through your Plugins menu on your WordPress blog.

If you’ve been thinking about making the move to WordPress from Tumblr, this is your best best. Hopefully there will be an option for the WordPress.com hosted blogs soon.

Thanks to Matt Mullenweg for the tip.

If you’re a blogger, then we’re sure you’ve been in a situation where you can’t login to WordPress or Tumblr, or you need to get something to the world fast via Twitter or Facebook.

Instablogg lets you set up a blog post instantly and anonymously in seconds. Even if you’re not a blogger and don’t want to set up your own blog, Instablogg is perfect for quick publishing.

I can’t see the service adding anymore features, as its simplicity is what attracts you, but Instablogg is seeking requests for features here.

Writing a blog post, instantly

You’re shown a familiar WYSIWYG editor as soon as you visit the Instablogg site. You don’t have to sign up or connect any accounts. Simply give your blog post a title and start entering in whatever you like, including pictures, video embeds, and a your text.

Of course, Instablogg doesn’t have a video or hosting service, as this is a no frills and simplistic approach to instant publishing. You can make the post private, or public.

You’re given a unique URL to edit your post, but if you lose it, you’re out of luck because there of course is no sign-up process to claim your post.

Obviously, if you’re a serious blogger and want your own design, themes, and branding, then you should look for another service.

Sharing your post

Once you’ve written and published your post and want to share it with the world, Instablogg’s simple design includes a share to Twitter button, a Facebook Like button, and even a share button that includes services like Digg.

You can view my example post here.

The service has two other interesting features considering its simplicity, built-in commenting powered by Disqus, and a unique QR code for each post.

Services like Tumblr and Posterous are super simple blogging platforms, but again, not having to sign up is a plus. Another option for anonymous blogging is a service called FearlessBlogging, but isn’t as simple as Instablogg.

If you’re just getting started in the world of online publishing, or you need to get your words or a piece of news out to the world immediately, Instablogg is the best anonymous service I’ve seen.

It was only a matter of time before an awesome Tumblr theme developer created a theme that looks exactly like Facebook’s Timeline. That time has come thanks to creative agency Playground, Inc.

In a blog post today, the company announced its new free Tumblr theme Facelr, which makes your Tumblr blog look strikingly similar to what your profile will look like on Facebook once Timeline launches publicly.

The company said:

Sharing on the Internet is getting easier and easier. Social networks and blogging platforms have led the way by helping people all around the world create a home for the content of their lives. We share moments and memories, pictures, thoughts and things that inspire us. We share funny things, sad things and, sometimes, embarrassing things. Today, Playground wants to share something fun.

Imagine if there was an easier way to Tumble. Introducing Facelr: a new kind of theme.

You can install Facelr for your Tumblr blog right now, by going here.

A comparision

Here is Facebook’s new Timeline design:

Here is Facelr, for Tumblr:

You’ll notice that not only are the two similar design wise, the functionality is pretty much the same as well. While I had to do some tweaking and remove the sidebar profile information from my previous Tumblr theme, the install took seconds, and all of my posts were in place.

If you can’t wait for Timeline, you might want to grab the Facelr theme for Tumblr.

Can a company be sued for design infringement? We hope not, because Facelr is pretty well done.

Arktan, a small Silicon Valley based startup launched a new LiveBlogging tool today; the next evolution of event coverage, allowing publishers to incorporate their various social media accounts into a live blogging platform.

Arktan is the first startup to build a company powered by Echo StreamServer, a commenting and ratings engine we’ve previously featured, which is the technical backbone for Arktan to seamlessly scale its product in realtime.

“This product comes from the realization that the social web and its existing services like Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, TwitVid, Instagram, etc. are going to be the future of live blogging. It’s the first product to take the social web into the live blogging platform,” says Chris Saad, Echo’s VP of Strategy.

According to Rahul Aggarwal, CEO and Co-Founder of Arktan, this is the first Live Blog product that utilizes such a wide range of social media tools including Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, TwitVid, Instagram, etc. Writers can use the tool to tweet or post from the aforementioned networks and those items are streamed into an embeddable widget on the publisher’s page in realtime.

Arktan’s widget is simply the next evolution of current live blogging tools. It allows writers to say, “OK, I want these three Twitter accounts, this Tumblr and this Instagram account to be the sources for my LiveBlog.” It also lets writers include photos and videos from TwitPic, Yfrog, Tweetphoto, YouTube, TwitVid, and more right in their stream.

Arktan says their platform is designed to keeps visitors on the site with inline media. It gives publishers the ability to pull in nested comments like Facebook comments and @replies from Twitter, which is a first in the industry. All posts are highly social, including the ability for visitors to Like, Reply, Share and Flag.

Publishers can customize the look and feel of their live blog to match the colors, fonts and other styles of their existing website. Multiple journalists can stream onto one platform and moderation and spam detection capabilities are in-built so that site owners can control the conversation.

USA Network uses Arktan LiveBlogging to power Live Blogging on their “Character Chatter” sites to drive user engagement during popular TV shows such as Psych and Burn Notice. Recently, the artist known as Dr. Dre used the LiveBlogging platform to promote his latest album and Newsweek used it for its Oscars 2011 coverage.

The service, which will be constantly updated, costs $200 per month for now and is sold through Arktan.com or through the Echo App Store.

It sounds pretty cool to us- we’ll be giving it a whirl at our upcoming The Next Web Conference, taking place April 27th-29th in Amsterdam, Netherlands. More info here.

With advertising annoying the life out of us, it is easy to see why services like Readability and its comrades Instapaper and Read it Later are becoming popular. These sites remove all the clutter around websites so that you, the reader, can get to the text without have to duck-and-dive your way through the adverts, and read it wherever you choose.

Instapaper, which is one of the most popular services to bookmark posts on the web to read later, has partnered up with Readability. Readability is similar to Instapaper however it asks for a donation of $5 or above to gain access to the site. The subscription fee is monthly and 70% of the donation is distributed to the site publishers who install a simple “Read Now/Read Later” button on their pages.

How Readability works: You’re asked to make an account and then directed to Amazon payments. The donation of $5 and up is then taken from you at the end of the month. There is no fee for the product itself. Once your account is created you can add publications to your reading list.  The adverts are removed, leaving behind the text. There is a handy personalization feature where you can chose the text size.

Readability provides an interesting solution to the monetization problem of publishers. And to help the publishing ecosystem and distribution of Readabilty, the founder of Instapaper Marco Arment, who previously lead developer at Tumblr, announced on his blog today that Instapaper will be developing and powering the Readability mobile and tablet apps. Arment, who is also an advisor for Readability, also announced that Instapper will soon provide an option to send logs of your reading activity to your Readability account.

Readability is aimed at helping readers and publishers. However what will happen to my paid subscriptions? Will I have to pay twice? Additionally will Readability be partnering with other easy-reading-services like Read it Later? Or will this partnership only extend to companies in which it has an active role in? How will site publishers react with the loss of advertising revenue? The other area of contemplation is that Readability and sites like it, do not have comments, I as a reader find comments engaging and often spend as much time reading the article as I do reading the comments.

TNW will be getting our own Readbility button soon, make sure to add us to your list.