Digg

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Digg Digg Digg, Inc. History and description Screenshot Digg, Version 1.6 Digg started out as an experiment in November 2004 by Kevin Rose, Owen Byrne, Ron Gorodetzky, and Jay Adelson. All except Byrne currently play an active role in the [2] management of the site. "We started working Kevin Rose Founder(s) on developing the site back in October 2004," Headquarters San Francisco, California, United Rose told ZDNet.[5] "We started toying States around with the idea a couple of months priWorldwide Area served or to that, but it was early October when we actually started creating what would become Kevin Rose (Founder) Key people the beta version of Digg. The site launched to Jay Adelson (CEO) Scott Baker (Operations Director) the world on December 5, 2004." Rose’s John Moffett (CFO) friend, David Prager (The Screen Savers, Brian Link (Director of Site This Week in Tech), originally wanted to call Development)[3] the site "Diggnation", but Rose wanted a simpler name. He chose the name "Digg", be71[2] Employees cause users are able to "dig" stories, out of digg.com Website those submitted, up to the front page. The site was called "Digg" instead of "Dig" beDigg is a social news website made for cause the domain name "dig.com" had been people to discover and share content from previously registered by the Walt Disney Inanywhere on the Internet, by submitting links ternet Group. "Diggnation" would eventually and stories, and voting and commenting on be used as the title of Rose and Alex Alsubmitted links and stories. Voting stories up brecht’s weekly podcast discussing popular and down is the site’s cornerstone function, stories from Digg. respectively called digging and burying. The original design was free of advertiseMany stories get submitted every day, but ments, and was designed by Dan Ries. As only the most Dugg stories appear on the Digg became more popular, Google AdSense front page. Digg’s popularity has prompted was added to the website. In July 2005, the the creation of other social networking sites site was updated to "Version 2.0". The new with story submission and voting systems.[4] "version" featured a friends list, the ability to "digg" a story without being redirected to a Founded San Francisco, California (December 5, 2004 (2004-12-05))[1] Type Private 1 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "success" page, and a new interface designed by web design company Silverorange.[6] The site developers have stated that in future versions a more minimalist design will likely be employed. On Monday June 26, 2006 version 3 of Digg was released with specific categories for Technology, Science, World & Business, Videos, Entertainment and Gaming as well as a View All section where all categories are merged. Digg has grown large enough that submissions sometimes create a sudden increase of traffic to the "dugg" website. This is referred to by some Digg users as the "Digg effect" and by some others as the site being "dugg to death". However, in many cases stories are linked simultaneously on several popular bookmarking sites. In such cases, the impact of the "digg effect" is difficult to isolate and assess. Wordpress is especially known for its tendency to crash under the increased traffic.[7] On August 27, 2007, Digg altered its main interface, mostly in the profile area. The domain "digg.com" attracted at least 236 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com survey. Digg statements. They reported that Digg lost 4 million dollars on 6.4 million dollars of revenue in the first three quarters of 2008. [12] Website Digg Inc is based mostly from its Digg.com website. Many of Digg’s new developments are improvements and features to its website. Facebook Connect In May of 2009 Digg launched a new feature called Facebook Connect.[13] Facebook connect allows users of Digg and Facebook to connect their accounts. When a Facebook account is connected to a Digg account, Digg articles can then be shared on the user’s Facebook page.[14] Facebook Connect also allows Facebook users to log into Digg with their Facebook account, thus bypassing the normally required Digg registration. Digg Dialogg Digg Dialogg allows Digg users to submit questions to a preselected famous individual who agrees to do an interview with a reporter chosen by Digg. [15] Potential sale Several reports have come forward claiming Digg has been trying to sell itself to a larger company since early 2006.[8] While Adelson claims that Digg will meet with any potential buyers, he denies that they will actively begin talks for a sale. The most recent sale talks were with Google in July 2008 for approximately 200 million dollars. On July 25, during the due diligence part of the potential sale, Google informed Digg that they were not interested in the purchase.[9] As a result of Google’s decision, Digg entered into a third round of funding, receiving $28.7 million from investors such as Highland Capital Partners. With this funding, the company plans to move from their current offices to accommodate a bigger staff base.[10] On December 2, 2008, BusinessWeek reported "Digg Chief Executive Officer Jay Adelson says the popular news aggregation Web site is no longer for sale, and the focus of the company is to build an independent business that reaches profitability as quickly as possible. That means the four-year-old startup will dial back some of its expansion plans, instead prioritizing projects that generate revenue and profit".[11] On December 18, 2008, BusinessWeek analyzed Digg’s financial Digg Bar On April 2nd, 2009, Digg released the Digg Bar, which provides a toolbar above the top of a site allowing the user to produce shortened urls, or access digg comments and analytics without leaving the page.[16] Criticism Digg has come under criticism for varying reasons. Most disparagements are centered on the site’s form of user-moderation: users have too much control over content, allowing sensationalism and misinformation to thrive. [17][18] The site has also suffered the risk of companies paying for stories submitted to the site,[19][20][21][22] similar to the phenomenon of company-attempted Google bombing. Other critics feel that the site’s operators may exercise too much control over which articles appear on the front page as well as the comments on Digg’s forums.[23][24] Some users complain that they have been blocked from posting, and their accounts disabled, for making comments in the user-moderated forums that conflict with the 2 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia personal interests of Digg’s operators.[25] The existence of the "bury" option has also been criticized as undemocratic and due to its anonymous nature, unaccountable,[26] which often leads to expungement of criticism of hotbed topics that do not mesh with the prevailing view of the community, which has been characterized as liberal or left-leaning by some critics [27] and users.[28] Another criticism in this area has been[29] how a faulty or misleading article can reach many users quickly, blowing out of proportion the unsupported claims or accusations (a mob mentality). Certain Digg users have been accused of operating a "Bury Brigade" that tags articles with which they disagree as spam,[18][30][31] thus attempting to bury stories critical of Digg. One commentator states that one of the site’s major problems: "...is the ability of a small number of users to "bury" stories without accountability. Burying news is meant to help separate spam and inaccurate stories from the general morass of ordinary, viable stuff. It has been reported that the top 100 Digg users posted 56% of Digg’s frontpage content, and that a niche group of just twenty individuals had submitted 25% of the frontpage content.[32][23] A few sites[18] have raised the problem of groupthink and the possibility that the site is being "manipulated", so to speak. In response to this question, the site’s founder Kevin Rose has announced an upcoming change to the site’s algorithm:[33] "While we don’t disclose exactly how story promotion works (to prevent gaming the system), I can say that a key update is coming soon. This algorithm update will look at the unique digging diversity of the individuals digging the story. Users that follow a gaming pattern will have less promotion weight. This doesn’t mean that the story won’t be promoted, it just means that a more diverse pool of individuals will be needed to deem the story homepage-worthy."[34] Digg function within the community, entrepreneurs need to follow social bookmarking etiquette--contribute, be honest, get involved. [35] AACS encryption key controversy On May 1, 2007 an article appeared on Digg’s homepage that contained the encryption key for the AACS digital rights management protection of HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Then Digg, "acting on the advice of its lawyers", removed posting submissions about the secret number from its database and banned several users for submitting it. The removals were seen by many Digg users as a capitulation to corporate interests and an assault on free speech.[36] A statement by Jay Adelson attributed the article’s take-down to an attempt to comply with cease and desist letters from the Advanced Access Content System consortium and cited Digg’s Terms of Use as justification for taking down the article.[37] Although some users defended Digg’s actions,[38][39][40] as a whole the community staged a widespread revolt with numerous articles and comments being made using the encryption key.[41][42] The scope of the user response was so great that one of the Digg users referred to it as a "digital Boston Tea Party".[43] The response was also directly responsible for Digg reversing the policy and stating: "But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be."[44] Digg Bar Marketing tool Digg has become a very effective marketing tool for entrepreneurs. However, companies on social bookmarking sites have the image of an outsider, or a third party. Oftentimes, businesses are not in tune with the community surrounding social bookmarking sites and can alienate "friends" with incessant company news (aka spam). In order to Digg Bar on Wikipedia homepage 3 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia After its release the Digg Bar rapidly became the target of criticism, for framing the original webpage and not redirecting the user to the original url.[45][46] There is an ongoing worry about whether the Digg Bar would lower sites’ page rank because the shortened urls fail to give ’link credit’ to the original sites.[47] Several content management systems released plugins that blocked the Digg Bar and Engadget began redirecting users to the original urls.[48] Digg http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/07/ just-sell-digg-already-jay/. Retrieved on 2009-02-27. [9] "Google Walks Away From Digg Deal". washingtonpost.com. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ content/article/2008/07/26/ AR2008072601421.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-27. [10] "Digg the Blog » Blog Archive » Big News: Expanding & Growing Digg". Blog.digg.com. 2008-09-24. http://blog.digg.com/?p=256. Retrieved on 2009-02-27. [11] Ante, Spencer E. (December 2008). "Digg: Not For Sale". http://www.businessweek.com/ technology/content/dec2008/ tc2008121_004686.htm. Retrieved on 2008-12-09. [12] "A Wrench in Silicon Valley’s Wealth Machine". December 2008. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/ content/08_52/b4114082618241.htm. Retrieved on 2008-12-30. [13] Rose, Kevin (May 6, 2009). "Facebook Connect Launches Today!". http://blog.digg.com/?p=729. [14] Arrington, Michael (May 6, 2009). "Facebook Connect Now Live On Digg". http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/06/ digg-to-launch-facebook-connect-today/. Retrieved on May 9 , 2009. [15] http://digg.com/dialogg/ [16] Rose, Kevin (April 2, 2009). "DiggBar Launches Today!". http://blog.digg.com/ ?p=591. [17] "Digging The Madness of Crowds". Radar.oreilly.com. http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/ 01/digging_the_madness_of_crowds.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-27. [18] ^ "Why Digg Failed". Kuro5hin.org. 2007-02-14. http://www.kuro5hin.org/ story/2007/2/14/131127/709. Retrieved on 2009-02-27. [19] "Digg, scripts and bots". Searchsiren.com. 2008-12-17. http://www.searchsiren.com/?p=98. Retrieved on 2009-02-27. [20] Sandoval, Greg. "Digg continues to battle phony stories". News.com.com. http://news.com.com/ Digg+continues+to+battle+phony+stories/ 2100-1025_3-6144652.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-27. See also • • • • • • • del.icio.us StumbleUpon Fark Reddit Slashdot Social bookmarking Web 2.0 References [1] Corporate Profile - Digg, Inc., 2006-09-28, http://techaddress.wordpress.com/2006/ 09/28/corporate-profile-digg-inc/, retrieved on 2009-01-18 [2] ^ http://digg.com/about/ [3] "Digg Inc.". Business Week. http://investing.businessweek.com/ research/stocks/private/ snapshot.asp?privcapId=24526784. Retrieved on May 9 , 2009. [4] Pat McCarthy (2006-09-10). "Revisiting Top 10 Web Predictions of 2006". Conversionrater.com. http://www.conversionrater.com/ index.php/2006/09/10/revisitingtop-10-web-predictions-of-2006/. Retrieved on 2009-02-27. [5] MacManus, Richard (2006-02-01). "Interview with Digg founder Kevin Rose, Part 1". ZDNet. http://blogs.zdnet.com/ web2explorer/index.php?p=108. Retrieved on 2006-07-15. [6] "Digg". Silverorange. http://www.silverorange.com/a/portfolio/ digg. Retrieved on 2009-02-27. [7] "Diggproof your Wordpress". Circle 6 Design. 2007-01-22. http://blog.circlesixdesign.com/2007/01/ 22/diggproof/. Retrieved on 2008-03-15. [8] Arrington, Michael (2007-11-07). "Just Sell Digg Already, Jay". Techcrunch.com. 4 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Digg [21] Cory Bergman (2006-07-25). "Paying 12/09/zdnet-not-immune-to-the-buryusers for creating content". brigade/. Retrieved on 2009-02-27. Lostremote.com. [31] "An Open Letter to Kevin Rose". http://www.lostremote.com/2006/07/25/ Techipedia.com. 2007-09-07. paying-users-for-creating-content. http://www.techipedia.com/2007/anRetrieved on 2009-02-27. open-letter-to-kevin-rose/. Retrieved on [22] Arrington, Michael (2006-03-18). "The 2009-02-27. Power of Digg". Techcrunch.com. [32] Posted by randfish on Thu (7/20/06) at http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/03/18/ 12:35 PM Blogging (2006-07-26). "Top the-power-of-digg/. Retrieved on 100 Digg Users Control 56% of Digg’s 2009-02-27. HomePage Content". SEOmoz. [23] ^ 1:58 am. "A Brief History of Digg http://www.seomoz.org/ Controversy". Deepjiveinterests.com. blogdetail.php?ID=1228. Retrieved on http://www.deepjiveinterests.com/2006/ 2009-02-27. 08/25/a-brief-history-of-digg[33] Cory Bergman (2006-09-06). "Digg to controversy/. Retrieved on 2009-02-27. tweak its algorithm". Lostremote.com. [24] "’Democratic’? ’User-driven’? These do http://www.lostremote.com/2006/09/06/ not describe Digg". digg-to-tweak-its-algorithm/. Retrieved Jesusphreak.infogami.com. on 2009-02-27. http://jesusphreak.infogami.com/blog/ [34] "Digg Friends". what_happened_to_digg. Retrieved on Diggtheblog.blogspot.com. 2006-09-06. 2009-02-27. http://diggtheblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/ [25] "Is Digg being subverted by some sort of digg-friends.html. Retrieved on spamming?". Technology.guardian.co.uk. 2009-02-27. http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/ [35] Sparxoo "Death of the Digg Salesman" story/0,,1761697,00.html. Retrieved on [36] Stone, Brad (2007-05-03). "In Web 2009-02-27. Uproar, Antipiracy Code Spreads [26] webmaster@starttherevolution.org. "Is Wildly". The New York Times. Digg Closer To Extinction Than We http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/ Realise?". Starttherevolution.org. technology/03code.html. Retrieved on http://www.starttherevolution.org/ 2007-07-02. archives/2006/200611/ [37] Jay Adelson. "Digg the Blog: What’s IsDiggCloserToExtinctionThanWeRealise.htm. Happening with HD-DVD Stories?". Retrieved on 2009-02-27. http://blog.digg.com/?p=73. [27] "Possible proof that Digg.com is biased [38] "Cease and desist letters backfire against Conservatives - The Opinion horribly against AACS". TGdaily. Wiki". Opinion.wikia.com. 2007-05-01. http://www.tgdaily.com/ http://opinion.wikia.com/ content/view/31859/97/. Retrieved on index.php?title=Possible_proof_that_Digg.com_is_biased_against_Conservatives. 2009-02-27. Retrieved on 2009-02-27. [39] "Digg losing control of their site". [28] Digg. "Does Digg Have a Liberal Bias? Weblog.infoworld.com. Share Your Thoughts". Digg. http://weblog.infoworld.com/railsback/ http://digg.com/tech_news/ archives/2007/05/digg_losing_con.html. Does_Digg_Have_a_Liberal_Bias_Share_Your_Thoughts. Retrieved on 2009-02-27. Retrieved on 2009-02-27. [40] Sanders, Tom. "DRM lobby tries to get [29] View my My Posts Facebook Twitter HD DVD genie back into the bottle". LinkedIn (2006-01-10). "Digg and the SoComputing.co.uk. Called "Wisdom of Mobs"". http://www.computing.co.uk/vnunet/ Mashable.com. http://mashable.com/ news/2188970/drm-lobby-tries-hd-dvd2006/01/10/digg-and-the-so-calledgenie. Retrieved on 2009-02-27. wisdom-of-mobs/. Retrieved on [41] Marcus Yam. "DailyTech: AACS Key 2009-02-27. Censorship Leads to First Internet Riot". [30] 7:05 pm. "ZDNet Not Immune To The http://www.dailytech.com/ "Bury Brigade"". Deepjiveinterests.com. article.aspx?newsid=7129. Retrieved on http://www.deepjiveinterests.com/2006/ 2007-05-02. 5 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [42] "BBC News: DVD DRM row sparks user rebellion". http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/ technology/6615047.stm. Retrieved on 2007-05-02. [43] [1] Digg’s DRM Revolt [44] Kevin Rose (2007-05-01). "Digg This: 09 F9 [...]". Digg the Blog. Digg Inc. http://blog.digg.com/?p=74. Retrieved on 2007-05-02. [45] http://daringfireball.net/2009/04/ how_to_block_the_diggbar [46] http://www.mark8t.com/2009/04/12/ blocking-diggbar-script [47] Danny, Sullivan (April 10, 2009). "The Growth Of Framebars & Kevin Rose On Digg The DiggBar". http://searchengineland.com/the-growthof-framebars-kevin-rose-on-thediggbar-17416. [48] Topolsky, Joshua (April 10, 2009). "Why Engadget is blocking the DiggBar". http://www.joshuatopolsky.com/2009/04/ 10/why-engadget-is-blocking-thediggbar/. External links • Official site Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digg" Categories: Blogs, Community websites, News websites, Social bookmarking, Internet properties established in 2004, Social information processing This page was last modified on 19 May 2009, at 02:56 (UTC). All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) taxdeductible nonprofit charity. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers 6