Mark Zuckerberg made a big impact yesterday on Giving Tuesday. Not only did he announce the he and
his wife Priscilla Chan welcomed their daughter Max into the world, they also announced that they would give away 99 percent of their Facebook shares in their lifetime. But the part of the announcement you might have missed? Zuckerberg made one of the first uses of Facebook’s new Notes feature. The new Notes is a far cry from the original Facebook Notes feature, which was reminiscent of chain letters among my high school and college friends.
The new notes, it’s a bit more sophisticated as Resource Magazine points out…and it’s quite beautiful.
The revamp of Notes is a direct response to the popularity of sites like Medium, which has recently seen posts from the White House, and hosted a very public battle between Amazon and The New York Times.
As our own CEO and President Aaron Blank said in GeekWire on the Amazon v. The New York Times issue that Amazon’s decision to publish their response on Medium is a smart move and a great way to own their content. As Aaron said: “The fact that Amazon can write its own side of the story and put it out there for all the world to see – and not have to rely on a correction or other media outlet to write it for them – is a great example of how much things have changed in the communications and media landscape. Companies always need to look for ways to tell their own story, rather than relying on others to tell it for them.”
Expect Facebook to push Notes forward as an alternative to Medium, and as a direct way to bring your thoughts directly to your friends. The big question is, will individuals and brands take Notes beyond chain letters and political rants into a viable world microblogging platform? Only time will tell.