Is Digg Dead?

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Before Twitter captured our hearts and Facebook re-centered the social universe, there was Digg.

Getting on the front page of Digg was every bloggers dream, and no matter how many times they changed their algorithm (to the fury of users) it seemed that Digg was an unstoppable force that was here to stay.

Fast forward to the present and you do not see many sites prominently featuring Digg buttons anymore, with many replacing the once former champ with Twitter, Facebook like buttons or even Google Buzz.

Digg is attempting to reverse its present slide into irrelevancy by releasing a revamped version of the site (as shown below), but the question remains, “Is Digg still worth it?”

As mentioned by Digg’s founder Kevin Rose, only the top 120 stories really benefit from Digg due to their appearance upon the front page.

While that fact by itself would not be an issue (as only a few blogs can share the spot light), the fact that stories can be buried (or voted down) may not appeal to many bloggers, as controversial posts can easily be eliminated by a well organized mob.

Unlike Twitter and Facebook (which mainly emphasize links that followers enjoy), gaining traction via Digg can feel like swimming upstream, which may explain why Digg has become less popular over time (resulting in a drop off in traffic).

Will version 4.0 revive Digg? Only time will tell. But in an age where everyone is embracing “positive sharing,” Digg’s former days of glory may not be returning anytime soon (if at all).

(via TechCrunch)

Author: Darnell Clayton

Darnell Clayton is a geek who discovered blogging long before he heard of the word “blog” (he called them “web journals” then).

When he is not tweeting, friendfeeding, or blogging about space, he enjoys running, reading and describing himself in third person.

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Comments

  1. timethief says

    As far as I’m concerned Digg has never been a “healthy” social networking site. Way back in 2006 randfish published Top 100 Digg Users Control 56% of Digg’s HomePage Content. Back then I had the impression that like the site was controlled by a mob of obnoxious young males who sorely needed to be booted through the goal posts of life several times.

    In autumn of 2008 there were a mob of members using greasemonkey scripts. On their heels I watched between 07:30 AM and 08:30 AM EST daily or weekdays as submissions from certain sites hit Digg and within an hour were on the front page. Time passed and I simply moved on.

    If the recent algorithm changes have been effective and those the mob of game the system boys are electronically castrated then others like myself may consider returning to being an active member of Digg again but as you say only time will tell.

    • Franky Branckaute says

      Digg is just about backlink for webmaster,hehe..

      So is leaving a comment?
      Digg is for many SEO Freakz all about writing to score. I can target content to score on StumbleUpon and on Digg. Then Digg is all about wrapping your server and hope that you stay online.