I feel like the “enshittification” cycle of the web is speeding up. While Meta was building Threads, its engineers likely knew two things:

  1. A huge portions of its users would want a reverse chronological feed of the people they follow.

  2. A huge portion of its users would want a desktop web version.

Despite knowing these two things, they launched the product without them. Why? Because a mobile-first app with an algorithmic feed will be better for the monetization features they eventually want to roll out.

A decade ago, I feel like most of these major tech platforms were still adhering to a users-first mentality when building their products. Now they don’t even bother.

Jul 10, 2023
at
7:39 PM