Medium, a brand new blogging platform has just opened its’ access to public, after initial invite-only testing period. This is the latest project of Evan Williams who co-founded several other online startups like Twitter and Blogger.
What is Medium
“Medium is a new place on the Internet where people share ideas and stories that are longer than 140 characters and not just for friends. It’s designed for little stories that make your day better and manifestos that change the world,” Williams writes on his Medium page. “It’s simple, beautiful, collaborative, and it helps you find the right audience for whatever you have to say.”
Like he says, this platform is mainly for Twitter users who wants to express their feelings with more than 140 characters. Which is why users require a Twitter account to access the service. After signing in, you have to enter email address to verify the account and then you can start writing and reading on Medium. Your Twitter handle will be a part of your blog URL. For example my Medium blog is now at medium.com/@nrjperera. Using the bio and the profile picture from your Twitter account, Medium will automatically create a profile page, so you don’t have to spend time uploading avatar pictures or coming up with a cool intro of yourself. But, you can always customize your profile at anytime you want.
Why I fell in love With Medium
There are a ton of other blogging platforms on the web that gives out free blogs for anyone. So, what makes Medium so special? Well, I’ve found several reasons to separate medium from other platforms. What I most love about Medium is its’ minimalist design. The entire platform has the same design, big black letters on a light grayish background with less pictures. Main idea here is to let users focus more on reading, than stuffing it up with distracting shiny links, ads or different blog designs. It’s all about expressing yourself and easy reading.
There’s also another neat feature on Medium that shows the amount of time it takes to read a certain article. I’m not sure how they calculate this, but I think it’s actually pretty awesome because I can simply pick an article to read depending on the amount of free time I have.
Who’ s It For?
If you’re a type of person who likes to spend too much time styling up your blog, adding new gadgets and changing theme’s all the time, then Medium is not for you. This blogging platform is for true writers and readers only. Medium already has hundreds of brilliant articles written by great writers, businessmen, startup founders as well as ordinary Twitter users. This actually makes it much easier to follow these amazing people in one place and share ideas with them. Which is mainly why I’m going to use Medium as my official personal blog, soon.
Medium is still in development. In time, it will only get better. Everyone’s welcome to use this platform to let out all their ideas and feelings stuffed on their mind. If you feel like a true writer, check out Medium, write something, and let us know what you think.
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Follow @nrjperera - Roshan Jerad Perera
