Blackbird: Because The Internet Isn't Black Enough

[Chris]

Blackbird: Because The Internet Isn't Black Enough

BlackBird is a browser built on Mozilla Firefox aimed at African-Americans.  It features Black Search, Black News Ticker/Scroll, Black Video and Black Bookmarks.  There are buttons on the toolbar for sharing web pages, going directly to your social networks (Facebook, MySpace and Ning only–no Hi5…), and giving back to the Black community by donating to partnered non-profit organizations

What BlackBird appears to want is to be the center of your online life, much the way Google does.  By “you” I mean Black people, obviously.  By wrapping users in a content blanket that privileges the interests of the audience, the folks behind the browser hope to capture and keep its audience.  After all, you can access the Web just the same, but the stuff within easy reach and the scrolls snatching your attention are targeted at you.

Add to that my inability to find out much about the people behind BlackBird.  The website says: “Blackbird is operated by 40A, Inc., a company founded by three African American entrepreneurs, Arnold Brown II, Frank Washington, and H. Edward Young, Jr.“  However, a search for 40A, Inc. turns up only one hit, and that’s on the TechCrunch wiki, which got its information from the website.  Attempts to email the contacts listed on the About page resulted in delivery failures.  And a (cursory) search on the names mentioned revealed little except that H. Edward Young, Jr. is one of the publishers of Source magazine and is a lawyer.

Plus, BlackBird made itself my default browser even though I told it not to.  That may seem like a small thing, but it isn’t.  When software does things you don’t want or that you specifically ask it not to do, warning sirens should go off

[Chris]

ABOUT US

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. So, we encourage you to download and try Blackbird now that it's available! (Better than 9 out of 10 of the users that downloaded the alpha version the Blackbird Browser continued to use Blackbird as their main browser).

Blackbird is operated by 40A, Inc., a company founded by three African American entrepreneurs, Arnold Brown II, Frank Washington, and H. Edward Young, Jr.

http://www.blackbirdhome.com/about.html

[Thor]

More Racism........


I think that a class action lawsuit should be filed against these people for discrimination. I recall that when I was in Norfolk Va, there was a "yellowpages" like phone book, called, "The Black Pages" It only listed businesses that were owned by Blacks. I don't know if that phone book still exists.

As far as I'm concerned, the internet is "color blind"

[thundley4]

More Racism........


I think that a class action lawsuit should be filed against these people for discrimination. I recall that when I was in Norfolk Va, there was a "yellowpages" like phone book, called, "The Black Pages" It only listed businesses that were owned by Blacks. I don't know if that phone book still exists.

As far as I'm concerned, the internet is "color blind"

Rasism?

[Chris_]

More Racism........


I think that a class action lawsuit should be filed against these people for discrimination. I recall that when I was in Norfolk Va, there was a "yellowpages" like phone book, called, "The Black Pages" It only listed businesses that were owned by Blacks. I don't know if that phone book still exists.

As far as I'm concerned, the internet is "color blind"

Not any more, I guess.

[docstew]

from a purely capitalist, free market standpoint, i don't see the problem... they are a business with a product that they are pushing to a specific niche in the market.

that being said, this is wrong.  the last thing the black community needs to do to move forward into prosperity is to segregate and marginalize themselves from the rest of society.  wasn't a big part of the civil rights movement about undoing that?

[Tantal]

This is either a somebody's idea of a joke, or possibly the most vile thing on the whole entire internet.....'ll let ya'll decide.

http://ghettobraggingrights.wordpress.com/

It looks like something that might show up in a Blackbird search.

[Happy Fun Ball]