Medium replaces channels with tags

Medium is switching up the way it organizes stories, killing off channels in favor of tags.

The blogging platform’s homepage used to display a series of categories like Design, Tech, and Culture. Now, the company is allowing users to affix self-designated searchable tags to their own stories to make it easier for readers to discover content on Medium. In the FAQ section of a blog post describing the new feature, the company wrote:

Featured Tags are the next evolutionary step of Channels. We’ve migrated over that content to the tag pages. Now, all stories that were in the Tech channel are now in the “Tech” tag page. As a writer, you can add your story to the “Tech” tag page by tagging it as such.

In lieu of Channels, Medium’s front page will now show a rotating gallery of “featured tags” based on stories that are trending on the site.

Users will be able to choose up to three tags for each story they post.

Above: Tags on Medium

Image Credit: Medium

Tags are already used widely among other blogging platforms like Tumblr and WordPress to help users find the content they’re looking for.

Medium, which considers itself “the best writing tool on the web,” experiments with the way people tell and share stories, and sometimes it eschews what other blog platforms are doing in favor of following its own path.

Today’s change comes as part of a suite of features the platform is introducing to encourage writers post more. Medium rolled out a new in-line editor that allows users to blog a new post directly to Medium’s front page. It also introduced a content stream that allows you to start reading a Medium post without having to click through.

All three product roll-outs are aimed at getting users to engage more. Medium has developed a reputation as a platform for quality long-form writing — which is pretty intimidating for most people. In order to drive people to create new content and read new content, Medium will have to make its site friendlier to a broader spectrum of bloggers.

In the coming months, the company will also be rolling out mobile posting and commenting functionality, bringing it up to speed with some of its competitors. Expect to see more tweaks and product roll outs later this year.