What is this?!

So I know many of you are probably wondering exactly what this site is and why the word “black” is before “web 2.0.” After all, the web is not black or white and doesn’t care what race a user is. Whites visit sites that are targeted to Blacks and visa versa. As a Black web user I started to take note of the different user experiences I had come in contact with visiting sites that targeted African-Americans or African-American culture. I was disappointed at the vast differences between these websites and other sites that targeted the general public. Naturally I asked myself “Why?” Just when I began to think that maybe there weren’t as many African-Americans like me who sought out pleasant web user experiences I noticed changes in some of the most popular destinations on the web for blacks. Maybe there is hope.

You see, as a Web Designer it is natural for me to look at websites that I visit in my leisure in this manner which is one of the reasons why I decided to start this blog. However, the main reason why I started this blog was because although we are seeing so much progress in how black websites are presented to their users I still think there is progress that can be made so that these websites are comparable to others that target the general public. Yes perhaps some of these projects have smaller budgets or perhaps it is a lack of knowledge. Just in case it is the latter, I am hoping this blog can help someone who runs a web property or is thinking of starting one that targets African-Americans and maybe even help someone to look at black web properties as a whole in a new light.

With that said I hope to also offer other tools (see Tools section) and have guest bloggers from experts in the industry. I welcome feedback and contributions in the form of posts as well.

-angela

About the Author
Angela Benton is the Founder and Publisher of BlackWeb20.com. Her experience spans a variety of industries including consultative relationships with companies such as UPS, Bizjournals.com, Realestate.com, and Lendingtree.com.
See all posts by Angela.