Tumblr’s New Buy Button

Tumblr on Tuesday (Dec. 2) rolled out an apparently easier way to make purchases through the service. In its own blog post, Tumblr offered simple instructions: “1. Find something you love on Etsy, Artsy, Kickstarter, or DoSomething. 2.      Post it to Tumblr. 3. That’s it. You were done at step two.”

By the way, in that same post, Tumblr described its own effort as both “clever” and “neat.” Note to Tumblr marketing: “Clever” is one of those terms that you’re really never supposed to use to describe your own actions. Leave it to others. Also, “neat” is a word you want to pretty much avoid entirely once you’re older than 14. (’tis free advice. No need to thank us.)

A Venturebeat story pointed out that those services function a little differently, with Kickstarter, Artsy and DoSomething generating a view button, while doing the same action from Etsy generates a buy button.

“Clicking on the view or buy button will redirect users to the site where the item is for sale, so you can’t buy in-app. But for Tumblr users who sell their own goods, this is an easy way to link products to a branded blog,” the Venturebeat story said. “Twitter and Facebook are both tooling with their own versions of the buy button, but both companies are building buttons that facilitate immediate transactions rather than redirecting consumers to another company’s site.”