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Blackbird Web browser: My mixed feelings

By Carmen D. on Thursday, December 11th, 2008, 7:47 pm Comments

If you haven’t heard, Blackbird is a brand new web browser created by a team of black entrepreneurs specifically for black people. Their tagline is "Blackbird: The browser for African Americans." I was a little insulted when I first read about this. I travel all over the web gathering all kinds of information and learning all kinds of things from all different kinds of sources and people. And initially, although it’s now been taken off the site, the market research touted by the Blackbird team made it very clear that their site was not for someone like me. They stated that their browser was aimed at the "85% of African Americans prefer to get their information from black sites." I am skeptical of that information, I would really like to see the underlying data.

Blackbird was developed on the simple proposition that we, as the African American community, can make the Internet experience better for ourselves and, in doing so, make it better for everyone. Primarily we believe that the Blackbird application can make it easier to find African American related content on the Internet and to interact with other members of the African American community online by sharing stories, news, comments and videos via Blackbird.

In turn, we can provide you with up-to-date information about what’s hot in our community as well as news and user recommendations related to all things African American.

This is an interesting selling proposition. And niche marketing is the way to go if you want to sell specific products to specific target markets. But is black, with all of our intellectual, spiritual, economic diversity, a single niche? I don’t think so and I think that may become a problem for Blackbird and any effort to broadly cater to a "black audience" on the web. What does that even mean?

As you’ll see, the browser is free because it comes with lots and lots of advertising. The good news is that the creators promise to donate some of that money to not-for-profits according to TechCrunch.

And before you start drawing non-parallel comparisons between Blackbird and BlackVoices let me make the distinction clear. I fully support there being all kinds of communities on the web. I resist any overarching effort that makes it too easy to passively surf from one like minded community to another without having to entertain other points of view.

Weigh in. Will you try Blackbird?

READ MORE: Blackbird Web Browser: Because Firefox is Too Navajo for Black Web Surfers
READ MORE: Black and White and Read All Over? Is Blackbird the Way to Niche Content?

  • sundown
    Tsk, tsk, tsk... this browser is simply an exaggerated example of what some marketeers will exercise in any attempt to capture what they deem to be a segmented and containerized market... Chi-Chi, Clancy & IR hit this dead on the head --- a perverted potential for profit thru polarization!!
  • Before I finished reading the post, I took a moment to review the browser and came to the same conclusion: a clever way to advertise and make money. Now, there's nothing wrong with that, it's jsut the BET of cyberspace.
  • serene
    Ok, I'm not in the 'niche' that they're going for, but I felt a bit offended for black people when I read about it. I mean, I personally thought that browsers didn't care what race you were. And I know that I would be offended if they came out with a browser for white people. The web is a pretty big area with something for everyone. I don't see why they needed to target any one race of people like that. Isn't that kind of like setting everything back? I'd have to say about half the black people I know don't even care for rap and don't limit themselves to just 'black entertainment'. Just like not all us white folk live for Barry Manilow or Kenny G. I don't judge people by the color of their skin, why should the tech world judge them on the browser they use?
  • Clancy
    This will be a boon to Google. Advertisers will love to have an exact target market
  • Chi Chi
    Sorry, Grampa, my typing is atrocious.
  • Chi Chi
    I agree with you both, Carmen and Gampa Caligula. I am insulted that as the world is opening up to blacks (African-Americans), a Web site wants to promote isolationism. I want to be part of a diverse universe that caters only to merit.
  • it's just one more thing that proves the fact that it's socially acceptable to support racism .. but only if your black .. it's sad

    http://themonetizedblogger.com/2008/12/web-promotion/blackbird-browser-what-retard-thought-this-up/
  • Guess it's my turn to stand on the soapbox! As a web and software developer, I feel that it's a marketing ploy that is insulting a best. I have to agree with you on this Carmen, but mostly because of my chosen industry.

    This is always a disturbing proposition in the world of software. There's an element of censorship implied here on a technical level. As an individual (and someone who believes in the power of a protest vote), I am constantly wary of the sources which provide my information. When software (and by proxy, a group of people who may or may not have fully altruistic intents) decides the best sites to provide to the end user, then the developer has overstepped his/her bounds.

    As a developer, it's exciting to me to see open-source software being used in really imaginative ways. But I'm failing to see the difference between a product like this and a tobacco company developing and marketing a cigarette targeted to the African-American demographic. A web site (usually) is a source of information. A web browser is a product. There's a reason for the term 'browser wars' and why it's generally a bad thing.

    The site quips that "Blackbird provides African Americans with easy access to advanced features and services, greater visibility and access to hard-to-find African-American online content and a platform for sharing their entire internet experience on the web." As a marketing phrase, I imagine that hits some of the right buttons. In reality, It's not really saying much. It's a browser - an appliance used for navigating web sites. A good website could provide these services to its audience.

    Had this been for a web-site that provides this type of functionality, I would not have thought twice about it. A web site is part of the larger community, so the user is free to chose what information they wish to collect. But Blackbird took the extra step and made their own web appliance. That's fine - I'm pretty sure ( given the nature of Mozilla and Firefox) it would be just as easy for a group to build their own browser and have it cater to a white-centric audience. As a product, my concerns and argument would still stand.

    I would think that the any community being targeted in this manner should be insulted. Even if the web browser is completely open and merely has hard content focused towards the black community, (to me) there's an air of exclusiveness and isolationism here. The web browser has proven to be a very powerful tool in the sense that it opens the world to any viewpoint that you would care to investigate. An application like this defeats the purpose of that openness, if only in spirit.

    This application simply bothers me as a proponent of open dialect and as a software developer. The web is meant to be open to all and all inclusive. This browser shuts that door a little bit.
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