Facebook revamps 'Notes' to be your next blogging platform

Facebook "Notes" has long sat mostly dormant, a strange appendage to Facebook whose added function beyond "statuses" wasn't quite clear.

But now Facebook has decided what the function will be: blogging.

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the company is "testing an update to Notes to make it easier for people to create and read longer-form stories on Facebook." This update, at least in some forms, looks look surprisingly like Medium, as developer Dave Winer pointed out.

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The new update adds functionality like the ability to add a cover photo and resize photos, which makes a "note" feel like more of a constructed entity than a status update.

Facebook/John Biesnecker

Facebook presumably hopes to convince users to write their more serious and considered - and longer - posts on Facebook itself, instead of linking out to other blogging platforms.

And the user interface is attractive at first blush, with the added bonus of having the functional equivalent of a Facebook comment plugin embedded in the post.

As with other elements of Facebook, you can choose to share notes with the public, your friends, just yourself, or a custom roster.

If the new notes isn't showing up for you, it's because it is currently being tested with only a small number of profiles.