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. It’s used by everyone from professional journalists to amateur cooks. It’s simple, beautiful, collaborative, and it helps you find the right audience for whatever you have to say.

If you’re here to read, start on the homepage, where you’ll find links to our editor’s picks of interesting new articles, as well as the most popular pieces among readers right now. If you register and sign in, you can write, leave notes for authors, and recommend the pieces you like.

If you’re interested in writing, here are three things to know about how Medium is different:

1. Medium lets you focus on your words

Medium is a beautiful space for reading and writing — and little else. The words are central. They can be accompanied by images to help illustrate your point. But there are no gratuitous sidebars, plug-ins, or widgets. There is nothing to set up or customize.

When you write on Medium, you’ll know that your words and pictures will look great on any device; they’ll automatically adjust to the latest technology and even get better over time.

Medium’s composing tool is truly what-you-see-is-what-you-get and has just the right amount of formatting to tell your stories without getting in the way. In short, Medium is focused on keeping you focused.

“It’s true: Medium has the best web-based editor I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen them all.” —Anil Dash

2. Medium is collaborative

On Medium, you’re not alone. You write beside and with other people. This means your posts link to each other, your ideas bump into each other, and instead of living on an island somewhere out on the web, you’re part of a dynamic whole, where each part makes the others better.

At the heart of Medium is the idea that people create better things together. Even professional writers need editors, and Medium makes it easy to get help before you hit the “Publish” button. These same tools let readers engage by offering feedback and ideas in context (with the author always in charge of what gets seen publicly).

“This is probably the most awesome UI I’ve ever seen for people to collaborate on writing.” —Daniel Stanoescu

3. Medium helps you find your audience

We think great ideas can come from anywhere and should compete on their own merits. On Medium, you can contribute often or just once in a blue moon, without the commitment of a blog. And either way, you’re publishing into a thriving, pulsing network — not a standalone web site, which you alone are responsible for keeping alive.

Through a combination of algorithmic and editorial curation, posts on Medium get spread around based on interest and engagement. Some get hundreds of thousands of readers — and not because they were written by famous people. Medium is not about who you are or whom you know, but about what you have to say.