Is Facebook Notes the new blog?

Just in case you're a smart-aleck about grammar, I'm referring to "Facebook Notes" the application, it's a noun, so "is" is technically correct. Ok?

Did you get that "25 random things" meme on Facebook? Any of your friends tag you in a "Note" they wrote, but when you clicked through it read more like a blog post and your name wasn't even in the post?

If you answered "yes" and "yes", then spare a moment to think with me for a bit whether Facebook Notes is starting to replace blogging. The dynamic is different, but in essence, the content are the same.

With Notes, you're sending it to your audience (friends you know) by tagging them and giving them a little more impetus to click and read (or immediately close, when they see the wordcount) your posts.

On your blog, sometimes even your best friend doesn't read. And really, it just boils down to us wanting people to read our thoughts, doesn't it?

Based on some numbers I took the time to collate, I've been tagged about 26 times the past one month on "Notes" that didn't mention my name and were longer than 200 characters and read more like blogposts. Compared to just 8 three months ago. Small numbers, yes, but it does tell me the trend is picking up.

Of course, the differences are stark. Facebook is private, and (as far as I know) you can't search Notes using search engines. Blogs, however, are generally public.

With Facebook, you can "prompt" people you know to read your posts by "tagging" them to the story. On a blog, it's either your reader subscribes to your RSS feed or you can spam them with email.

Facebook supports mechanisms like "Liking" the article, comments etc. Blogs support comments and whatever widget you can throw at it.

I guess the big difference is that with Facebook, you're reaching out to your audience, a bunch of people you know already in some measure. With a blog, you can build an audience, but you'll never really know who else is reading your blog.