Medium finds middle ground between Pinterest and Blogger

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 15 Aug 2012 at 09:35

The co-founders of Twitter have taken the wraps off their new web publishing service, Medium.

Medium appears to be a halfway house between Pinterest and Blogger, allowing users to post photos or articles that are curated into themes. The site is currently displaying a limited set of these Collections as a preview, but is not yet allowing most users to publish their own content.

The Collections of content can be both "closed" or "open" to other contributors, allowing people to collaborate on particular themes. "Collections give people context and structure to publish their own stories, photos, and ideas," reads a welcome message on the Medium website. "By default, the highest-rated posts show up at the top, helping people get the most out of their time in this world of infinite information."

"Together, the contributions of many add up to create compelling and useful experiences. You may be inspired to post one time or several times a day — either way is okay. If you’re more ambitious, you might create a collection of your own."

The current selection of themes - created by friends and family of the founders - include an an open collection of "crazy" stories and a set of nostalgic photos.

The site claims that its guiding principle is to wrap content in elegant design. "We believe that good design supports the purpose (not just the appeal) of content, so Medium is diverse in look and feel — ranging from different types of articles to images to, eventually, much more," the welcome message reads.

Medium is the brainchild of Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone. Williams stepped down as Twitter CEO in 2010, and previously set up the Blogger service, which was sold to Google in 2003. Williams and Stone formed The Obvious Corporation - the company behind Medium - in June last year.