New Media on Ulitzer

Six Apart blogging software and services company, today unveiled a free level of the TypePad blogging service, called TypePad Micro, that makes blogging easier than ever for people who want to share their interests with others. The announcement caps more than a year of major developments that have resulted in an easier, more social, and more connected TypePad network of 88 million bloggers and readers.

Simple, Social Blogging
A new form of blogging is emerging -- somewhere between the status updates of Facebook and Twitter and the full-length posts of classic blogs -- focused on being easy, fun, and connected. TypePad Micro is built for this growing form of blogging, making it easy for people to curate compelling content from the web -- be it text, photos, or videos -- and share it in real time with people on their blog and by automatically cross posting to Facebook and Twitter.

TypePad Micro members can reach beyond their existing networks by taking advantage of TypePad's social media optimization features to tap into TypePad's large community of bloggers and readers, and build new connections with people who share their interests.

TypePad Micro is also an easy and free way for readers and commenters of blogs to deepen their engagement by quickly capturing items of interest on their very own blog. Readers of TypePad blogs encounter no barriers to participating in conversations and can quickly log in to TypePad using credentials from other services such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and any sites accepting OpenID sign in.

"We very much see this new form of blogging as a complement to, not a competitor of, services like Facebook and Twitter," said Chris Alden, Chairman and CEO of Six Apart. "Many bloggers have friends and followers on these great networks but often want to post more than 140 characters, or share photos and videos, with their own narrative and their own design."

TypePad Micro lowers the barriers to blogging for people who never would consider themselves bloggers. "I've never blogged before, but I wanted to share my experience designing and building a dry garden here in Northern California," said Kerry, whose new TypePad Micro blog, The Dry Garden (drygarden.typepad.com), shows her step-by-step approach to setting up a garden that requires little water. "My microblog was so easy to set up and maintain that I'm posting to it more frequently than I expected. I'm amazed how simple it is to produce posts that look like the pages of a high quality gardening book."

TypePad Micro members who find they need a more customized, fully featured web presence can easily upgrade to TypePad Pro, the professional blogging service that offers hundreds of beautiful designs, professional support, and helpful ways to attract traffic.

Anyone can quickly set up a free TypePad Micro blog by visiting www.typepad.com.