It was only a few short days ago that artist Matthew Inman, aka The Oatmeal, had his State of the Web making the rounds. In it were chronicled major internet events of the past year, and one stirring recommendation: Tumblr needs a FailWhale equivalent. In a startling turn of events, Tumblr has honored that plea.
In the early days (ca. 2008), a lil’ microblogging service called Twitter could barely keep itself online and addressed these issues by making their 503 error page an adorable image of a whale sinking the internet. The FailWhale has since become the thing of internet legend. Fast forward a few years and another microblogging site, Tumblr, begins to grow in popularity. As it does, it too begins to fail with such regularity that you could set your watch by it.
And now, the Tumblbeasts have been unleashed; hopefully soothing frayed Tumblr users’ nerves with their adorable green antics. Beware the TumblBeast, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
(Tumblr and The Oatmeal via Buzzfeed)
Published: Jan 25, 2011 01:14 pm