Tumblr announced today that it will start to bring sponsored posts to users’ dashboards on the web.
“Just like in our mobile apps, these posts will simply blend in with the posts from the blogs you follow,” the company says in a short blog post.
Sponsored posts were launched for the mobile dashboard last month. Launch partners included Ford, Universal, Viacom, Denny’s, Purina, Capital One and AT&T.
“Since we launched our first sponsored post on Tumblr Radar one year ago, we’ve been proud to see our partners bring their most creative work to Tumblr,” the company says. “Their posts have already earned more than 10 million likes and reblogs”.
The dollar sign (pictured) is an indication that a post is an ad, and matches those used on the Radar ads.
As TechCrunch points out, people (teenagers) are “freaking out” about the ads, which is to be expected. The initial freak-out period will no doubt die down, as people realize the ads are pretty much like everything else you see on Tumblr anyway. The format hasn’t done much to alienate users from Facebook or Twitter either.
Yahoo, of course, announced that an agreement to acquire Tumblr earlier this month, along with plans to put more ads on it.