Facebook revamps Notes blogging tool to take on Medium

17 Aug 2015

Will we see more Facebook users write long form articles for what is increasingly the front page of the internet

Facebook has revamped its Notes feature to better present longer form content and encourage its users to blog. In doing so, Facebook perhaps intends to take on popular sites like Medium.

US users of Facebook have been spotting a newly-designed Notes that features easy-to-read text and larger photos and which could spawn a new movement in Facebook authors.

Notes is a little-used feature on Facebook that can be found in your About section, usually at the bottom of your profile.

Until now it has been a very basic blogging tool and most people aren’t aware that it is there.

It allows you to write and post your own formatted articles on Facebook as fully-formatted articles as opposed to straightforward individual posts.

I swear to blog! Facebook begins revamp of Notes

facebook-notes-redesign

The new Facebook Notes design spotted in the wild by @davewiner

While Facebook has been content to let this feature lie pretty dormant and unloved for some time, other platforms have been rising up.

Medium, which was established by two of Twitter’s original team, Biz Stone and Evan Williams, has increasingly of late been used by individuals to post long-form blogs, many of which have gone viral – for example, Isis Wenger’s outstanding Medium post on the subject of #ilooklikeanengineer

Facebook clearly realises it has missed a trick and has revamped the section to hopefully drum up better usage.

Blogging image via Shutterstock

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com