Villow is a working Fix the Web prototype: an attempt to give people more say over the YouTube they value. Nicholas Nucifora designed and built it around these ideas. They explain the design, rather than claiming its outcomes have been proved.
Control over your experience
Recommendations can be useful and enjoyable. Villow gives you a finite chronological feed you shape, plus optional country charts and friends' picks. YouTube's personalized recommendations remain on YouTube, where the extension lets you choose a ceiling on exposure.
Choose title filters, duration ranges, check-in cadence and per-channel limits. Catch up, then be done.
Worthwhile is yours to define
Entertainment, comfort and rest count. A video doesn't need to make you more productive to be worthwhile.
A quick “Was this worth your time?” reflection adds your perspective to the time you watched. It is always optional. Saved progress makes it easier to stop now and pick up where you left off.
An algorithm that shows its working
Villow's suggestions concern habits and settings, rather than what video might keep you watching next. They use ratings, skips and usage, wait for sufficient evidence, explain their reasons and offer an adjustment you can accept or dismiss.
It is a transparent set of rules, not AI. It never suggests raising a limit. Your judgment stays in charge.
Boundaries with room for real life
Daily and per-channel limits, schedules, bedtime and enforced breaks support boundaries you chose. Some prompts offer an allowance to finish the current video. That is separate from raising a limit and doesn't bypass every restriction.
Streaks count days without raising or extending limits. They don't simply count days below a time threshold. Shared streaks and social comparisons remain optional experiments; a higher total isn't a judgment about someone's life.
A shared starting point
Individualized feeds can make it harder to find common reference points. Popular in Your Country Today draws from YouTube's country charts, filtered by topics you choose.
A consistent source of discovery can give people something to discuss, question and build on together beyond their personal feeds. That common-ground vision matters. Popularity doesn't guarantee quality or truth, and we haven't shown that Villow reduces polarization.
Built for friends, not followers
Recommend a video and see whether a friend watched and liked it. Choose what to share with people on your Villow.
Watch together is implemented: private rooms for up to 10 accounts, invitations and explicit acceptance, synchronized playback, a shared queue and chat. Group decisions at a person's viewing limit remain separate unfinished work on the roadmap.
Social features aim to support real relationships. Whether particular comparisons help is a question to test, not something to assume.
An invitation to something else
Your chosen activities from Google Tasks or Todoist can appear at natural stopping points. They can be enjoyable, restful or practical. The list is an invitation, without pressure to make every moment productive.
Creator action panels and correction notices are separate proposals and showcases. Native YouTube integration would need platform support; some independent approaches are also conceivable.
Coverage you can understand
Your limits follow you across Villow and connected browsers. That means Villow usage plus YouTube pages in browsers with a linked extension. It excludes native YouTube apps and unconnected browsers.
Measurements are stored in the Villow you use. The owner controls its database, so choose a host you trust. Member sharing controls and operator access are different. Villow adds no ads and sells no viewing data; embedded YouTube videos may still show YouTube ads.
A broader, user-owned picture across platforms is a vision, rather than today's coverage.
Honest measurement and learning
The hourly chart excludes extension time because those reports have no hourly breakdown. Worth-it percentages use rated videos, without inventing verdicts for unrated ones.
Optional feedback check-ins go to Fix the Web through its survey service. Private viewing measurements aren't automatically submitted. Feedback can help improve the design and test its intentions; self-reported responses need careful interpretation.
Demonstrate what is possible
Villow demonstrates that these controls are possible. YouTube could offer them directly to everyone.
Working examples, people using them and honest evidence can strengthen the case for a better web. You can help by using Villow, inviting friends, sharing it with creators, contributing or supporting ongoing maintenance.
