Really, it just might.

At least, that’s what today’s cool “Web 2.0″ websites want you to keep in mind as you browse. This site is made by humans, run by humans, and is susceptible to piss fits and disaster at any given minute. Hey- we know it just stopped working, but dude, afterall, we’re human.

Although the Twitter “Fail-Whale” is an outage error message, it has become iconic and adored by Twitter users. It even has its own fan club!

Yes. The web these days is more about humans and less about tech. After all, Facebook Inc. is just a pile of servers and a warehouse of complex code, it’s the people who run it and the people who use it that actually make it interesting.

This interestingness is not (or at least should not be) just represented in the mind-gobbling functionalities, brilliantly new ideas, and designs that can impress Picasso. This interestingness should be portrayed all across the site, giving the user an experience similar to that he may go through in the real word.

One of my favorite facets to this interestingness is portrayed on great sites is the way words are treated; basic, boring words, like “Sign up” and “There is an error.”  The people behind great sites realize that despite what the content is and where it’s being displayed, it will always be read by another human, a human who wouldn’t mind a laugh and some cheap entertainment. Wording included. 

Afterall, humor is the best way to prove your human-ness.

One of my earliest experiences with wording humor is with Flickr, way back in 2004. Who remembers the “Flickr is getting a massage” error page?

The personification of a web-service makes you more inclined to allow it the few minutes off, “Ah, my brain shuts down every now and then as well, and a massage would do Flickr good!”

Pre-Yahoo Flickr was a pro with such messages. 

Adios, amigos.

Press pages are often dusty, and it’s nice to see that admitted.

<manual br>
Google is of course another popular service that goes the whole nine-yards with humanized web-copy, and they do a damn good job at that too (Ahem. I know I am Amman’s resident Google fangirl, but that doesn’t mean Google isn’t awesome.)

Google Wave is the latest example:

<manual br>
Social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Reddit are also excellent with embedding humor in their websites.

Digg error page.

Reddit ad.

Reddit menu item.

Reddit frame item. It would be lame indeed.

<manual br>
Meanwhile, Facebook has taken wordplay beyond error  messages and menu items by providing an entire language option called “English (Pirate). It’s hilarious.

Avast! :)

Can’t decide what’s funnier, “Abandom Ship” or “Scour”?

<manual br>

Even Arabic services are being witty in their own way. Here’s a screen from Ikbis:

Not so funny in English, hilarious in Arabic, “Ikbis is visiting his mother-in-law.”

Watwet uses an Arabic saying with patience for the “loading” screen.

<manual br>

Finally, it’s not just online websites that try to be humanize their wording, desktop-base applications such as Firefox are as well.

How could I possibly be annoyed at Firefox when it’s so embarrassed? :)

That’s it for now I guess. I hope this post will help the web designers and developers reading this to lighten-up their projects a little.

Did you enjoy this? Be awesome and share: