Facebook Notes, a suitable blogging platform?

Facebook Notes is a re-imagined version of the note taking feature that Facebook launched years ago on its site.
Unlike the previous version, it has been designed more like a basic blog editor than a simple note taking application that does not look or feel that different from jotting down status updates on the site.
Facebook Notes is an attempt to keep content on Facebook or produce it for the site. Most of the time, interesting articles, images or what have you are linked by posting a simple status update on Facebook.
Users read the update and click through (or not) to a third-party property that Facebook has no control over.
Facebook Notes
With Facebook Notes, things are different as traffic is kept on the site.
While that is clearly beneficial to Facebook, how beneficial is the new Notes for users of the site and how good of a blogging platform is Facebook Notes all in all?
Open Notes on Facebook
To open Notes on Facebook either use the following link directly https://www.facebook.com/notes or click on the Notes entry listed on the left sidebar instead (it is listed under Apps).
The interface displays notes of friends by default which may or may not use the new format already depending on when they were published.
Basically, late 2015 or later notes should be using the new format while everything before that probably does not.
Creating Notes
A click on "write a note" opens the editor interface which looks like many other blog editing tools out there on first glance.
You can add a cover photo to the article, a title, and use a handful of formatting options such as adding headlines, more photos or bullet points to it as well.
That's however everything there is in regards to tools, and while that is sufficient in many cases, it lacks basic options such as adding video to the note or changing the formatting in basic ways, for instance by not allowing you to change text alignment, indenting text or changing font type or colors.
Photos are added directly from the uploaded image archive on the site with an option to upload photos from the local system as well.
You may tag Facebook friends in notes. To do that, write their name starting with a capital letter until you get the selection menu that enables you to add the tag to the note. Hashtags are another feature that Notes supports. Simple add hashtags starting with # to the note, and you will notice that it is automatically marked in blue by Facebook to indicate that it is a tag.
Once you are done writing, you may save the note as a draft, or publish it to your account. The same visibility options are provided that you get when you write a new status message. You can make the note publicly available, or limit its visibility if you prefer that.
Who is it for?
Facebook Notes is limited when you compare it to third-party blogging platforms such as WordPress, Blogspot or Medium.
That does not necessarily mean that it is bad, only that its audience is slightly different. Since you can tap right into your Facebook friends and their friends as your audience, you don't start at 0 when you are starting to write.
While that is useful initially, Notes will hold you back as you grow as you don't get analytics, options to install plugins to extend the blog platform or use advertising or the majority of other monetization options when using notes.
If all of your friends are on Facebook and use it regularly, and if you just want to jot down thoughts or whatever, then Facebook Notes may be all you require.
Another advantage of Notes is that you don't need to create a new account on another site and configure the newly created blog to get started.


Martin, I would appreciate that you do not censor this post, as it’s informative writing.
Onur, there is a misleading statement “[…] GIFs are animated images …”. No, obviously you don’t seem to have take much notice of what you were told back in March regarding; Graphics Interchange Format (GIF).
For example, https://www.ghacks.net/2023/03/31/whats-gif-explanation-and-how-to-use-it/#comment-4562919 (if you had read my replies within that thread, you might have learnt something useful). I even mentioned, “GIF intrinsically supports animated images (GIF89a)”.
You linked to said article, [Related: …] within this article, but have somehow failed to take onboard what support you were given by several more knowledgeable people.
If you used AI to help write this article, it has failed miserably.
AI is stupid, and it will not get any better if we really know how this all works. Prove me wrong.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IYl1sTIOHI
Martin, [#comment-4569908] is only meant to be in: [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/09/how-to-send-gifs-on-iphone-two-different-ways/]. Whereas it appears duplicated in several recent random low-quality non relevant articles.
Obviously it [#comment-4569908] was posted: 9 July 2023. Long before this thread even existed… your database is falling over. Those comments are supposed to have unique ID values. It shouldn’t be possible to duplicate the post ID, if the database had referential integrity.
Don’t tell me!
Ghacks wants the state to step in for STATE-MANDATED associations to save jobs!!!
Bring in the dictatorship!!!
And screw Rreedom of Association – too radical for Ghacks maybe
GateKeeper ?
That’s called “appointing” businesses to do the state’s dirty work!!!!!
But the article says itself that those appointed were not happy – implying they had not choice!!!!!!
@The Dark Lady,
@KeZa,
@Database failure,
@Howard Pearce,
@Howard Allan Pearce,
Note: I replaced the quoted URI scheme: https:// with “>>” and posted.
The current ghacks.net is owned by “Softonic International S.A.” (sold by Martin in October 2019), and due to the fate of M&A, ghacks.net has changed in quality.
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/02/microsoft-is-removing-wordpad-from-windows/#comment-4573130
Many Authors of bloggers and advertisers certified by Softonic have joined the site, and the site is full of articles aimed at advertising and clickbait.
>> ghacks.net/2023/08/31/in-windows-11-the-line-between-legitimate-and-adware-becomes-increasingly-blurred/#comment-4573117
As it stands, except for articles by Martin Brinkmann, Mike Turcotte, and Ashwin, they are low quality, unhelpful, and even vicious. It is better not to read those articles.
How to display only articles by a specific author:
Added line to My filters in uBlock Origin: ghacks.net##.hentry,.home-posts,.home-category-post:not(:has-text(/Martin Brinkmann|Mike Turcotte|Ashwin/))
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/01/windows-11-development-overview-of-the-august-2023-changes/#comment-4573033
By the way, if you use an RSS reader, you can track exactly where your comments are (I’m an iPad user, so I use “Feedly Classic”, but for Windows I prefer the desktop app “RSS Guard”).
RSS Guard: Feed reader which supports RSS/ATOM/JSON and many web-based feed services.
>> github.com/martinrotter/rssguard#readme
We all live in digital surveillance glass houses under scrutiny of evil people because of people like Musk. It’s only fair that he takes his turn.
“Operating systems will be required to let the user choose the browser, virtual assistant and search engine of their choice. Microsoft cannot force users to use Bing or Edge. Apple will have to open up its iOS operating system to allow third-party app stores, aka allow sideloading of apps. Google, on the other hand, will need to provide users with the ability to uninstall preloaded apps (bloatware) from Android devices. Online services will need to allow users to unsubscribe from their platform easily. Gatekeepers need to provide interoperability with third-parties that offer similar services.”
Wonderful ! Let’s hope they’ll comply with that law more than they are doing with the GDPR.