We’ve all heard about how blogs have given everyone a world-wide platform. Anyone who has something to say (and many who don’t) can broadcast it to the whole world.
But what if you just wanted to share a message, or a few, on the fly, without starting a blog, and without making it a project? Sure, you can share a message on Twitter, but if you want to say something that is longer than 140 characters then check out shortText. This service will let you write a (rich text) message, attach an image or a video, and publish it to its own unique URL.
You can even set it such that readers could leave comments (or not), or make your message private by password protecting it. You will need to share the URL to get your message out there, of course; click here to see an example.
More notes:
- Duration: URLs will stay alive so long as someone visits them at least once within a span of three months, otherwise they are automatically deleted.
Chrome and Firefox extensions are available: (see screenshot to the right). These seem to be designed to use shortText to create 140 character Twitter-friendly messages that pivot to shorText for the longer content. They allow you to publish your message on the fly, and maintain and a list of submissions.- Images: you will have to upload your image to a free image hosting service (such as Imgur) first, or grab a URL from the internet
- Videos: you can share YouTube videos only. If you have your own video, you could upload it to YouTube first.
- Embedding media: unlike a normal blog post, you only embed a single media file (an image or a video)
- The maximum number of words: is a (quite large) 30,000. You can say a LOT of things with 30,000 words.
- Ownership: once you fire up your message, you can’t edit or delete it. You also cannot control the ads that display on the same page.
The verdict: a very nice service that can potentially give everyone a voice on the internet. Use it to publish your thoughts, leave notes to yourself or friends, put out directions to your house for that party you are having, etc.
[Thanks go to reader Panzer for emailing me about this service]
Visit the shortText site to start.
