TypePad Preview Release

It gives me great pleasure to report that we have finally launched a public version of TypePad. The TypePad preview release came to life at approximately 11:59 pm, Monday (to many, also known as Tuesday).

What does Preview Release mean? Just that we're still adding a whole lot of functionality, making improvements to the overall experience and that those early adopters using the system may notice a wrinkle here and there. We're planning on the full-scale public launch in mid-September.

In the past twenty-four hours since the launch, I've been spending a good amount of time browsing the recently updated list. The sheer quality of these sites have floored me. Where so many "test post" messages are expected, I find engaging entries from users in a variety of backgrounds and countries. After almost two years of developing Movable Type and realizing that the tool, while good, was quite intimidating to many, I'm incredibly pleased to see a new set of our users enter weblogging with ease and not be bogged down by installations and sometimes lackluster hosting environments. What I'm seeing is enthusiastic people drawn to weblogging through a focus on content and their own voice and not on the technologies that enable their tools. We're seeing an influx of friends and family of Movable Type users who have been waiting for a tool for them.

It's amazing to think that it was almost one year ago that we began development on TypePad. Time has simply flown by and the product has taken shape in ways that we never would have imagined. I'm grateful to all who got us to this point (especially the latest additions to the team, Paul and Brenna) and look forward to the months ahead developing both TypePad and the various Movable Type offerings scheduled for release later this year.

If you like what we do, please be sure to mention TypePad to your family and friends. We're still a small company and word of mouth helps a great deal.