A lot of people enjoy using the easy to use Tumblr service as a way to save and share links, quotes, videos, pictures, etc.. These “tumbleblogs,” as they are called, are a neat idea. It’s a similar concept to Twitter, posting quick updates instead of full-length blog posts. Out of the box, WordPress can be (and is) used in this manner. You don’t get the easy-to-use multimedia posting interface like Tumblr, though. Or the different styling for each type of post, either.
WordPress 3.0 has improved support for custom post types, which would make it very easy for someone to build Tumblr-like functionality into WordPress by way of a plugin.
Here’s a business idea for anyone enterprising enough to make it happen: Build a plugin that extends WordPress with Tumblr-style functionality. Add hooks and functions that themes could take advantage of. Give the plugin away for free, licensed under the GPL of course. Once that’s out of the way, you build a business selling themes that make use of the plugin. The plugin provides the framework, and then you can sell some low-cost themes that utilize the framework.
