| author |
title |
date |
| jeremy |
Every Major Internet Company Hates You (Protocols Not Platforms Pt. 1) |
2019-01-01 00:00:00 |
Every major internet proactively damages user experience to serve their own interests.
In a competitive economy, this is exceedingly unusual. But before we get to the why, let's define the problem.
The Problem
Claim: Every large consumer internet company actively spends their time and resources engineering degradations in user-experience.
Below are examples from Facebook, Apple, Reddit, and YouTube.
This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of user hostility, but instead to provide an unambiguous example for each.
Facebook
Facebook had (has!) a fully working, web-based version of their messaging platform.
They actively disabled on mobile to force more downloads of the app.
Apple
We could talk at length about Apple's hostility towards free software and the ability for users to own and control their own devices.
But let's look at the most unambiguous example possible: Apple actively slows down old phones to encourage more sales!
See this for the full details on this story.
Reddit
Evidently, Reddit really wants people to use their mobile app.
It current takes five clicks to view a GIF hosted on a non-Reddit site on mobile. It used to take one.
