On Actually Empowering Web Users

Tue 08/14/07

If you want to talk about empowering people, why don’t we empower them to have a clear mind, free from stupid ads and “Featured Artists”? Why can’t we design sites where you are free to look around and make your own choices about what video you watch and what music you listen to?…Also, I think that an audience collectively deciding on what gets featured is a terrible idea. It implies that some content is better than other content, when those things are completely subjective.

Vimeo co-founder Jakob Lodwick

2 Comments

  1. Joshua

    It must be said, Vimeo’s sporting ad space these days (granted, the definition of “stupid” is also completely subjective), but I enjoy what Jakob’s getting at here. Shoving a bunch of options in front of the user and allowing them to choose from those options is vastly different from letting the user explore content and decide what is good.

    Tue 08/14/07 at 3:16 pm

  2. Rob

    And you’re familiar with Vimeo, right: it is very much Jakob’s brainchild. All the things that you can do are clearly things that he loves. If you read his Tumblr archives, you’ll notice a trend in that. New features, redesigns, the current online-video-sharing market… it’s stunning to see how much Vimeo is Jakob and how little the “others” are paying attention to their users.

    Fri 08/17/07 at 3:58 am

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