Digg 3.0 will launch Monday, June 26, in the morning PST. The launch is being announced this evening, and Digg has made a number of screen shots available to me which are included in this post.
Richard MacManus and I interviewed Digg founders Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose about the new launch, and we also spent some time talking about new Digg competitor Netscape, as well as other Digg related issues. Listen to the podcast on TalkCrunch.
In addition to a redesign (that retains the essential Digg “experience”), Digg is adding a number of news categories beyond technology. Topics are grouped into six “containers”, including technology, entertainment, gaming, science, world & business, and online video. The default view on Digg is still the technology container, although users can change that view and can also deselect individual topics within containers to further refine what they see on the home page.
There are other significant feature additions as well (we go through all of them in the podcast). In addition to seeing what your friends have dugg, users can also just see stories more than one friend has dugg, further filtering new stories to what they might really want to see. Also, changing views between top stories and new stories won’t require a page refresh – Digg has added Ajax features (sparingly, they stress) to switch quickly between headlines and new stories, and among topics/containers.
Digg is looking more and more like the newspaper of the web, and is challenging even the New York Times on page views (Digg surpassed rival Slashdot long ago).
About 800,000 unique visitors come to Digg every day, generating 9 million plus page views. The site is doubling in traffic every two months. And the amazing thing is that Digg does all of this with just 15 employees.
Digg has raised $2.8 million in venture funding from Greylock and Omidyar as well as angel investors Marc Andreesen, Reid Hoffman and Ron Conway. Given the tremendous growth and passionate users, something tells me they are going to have a rather large liquidity event.
Screen Shots:
Update: Photos from the Digg party tonight are here (Scott Beale)
Wow, doesn’t look all that different. I was hoping for more of a new UI redesign, something that would break away from the cliche Web 2.0 pastels and make web applications actually look like applications. Too bad.
On the contrary, one of the reasons I prefer digg over other websites (Slashdot in particular) is it’s clean interface. I like it exactly the way it is, or as I see it in these screenshots.
I am very excited about the “Agreed On” feature. I think digg has done great things to the concept of comments on stories (you’ll never, ever see anyone with a “1st post!!!!” comment because of the modding). I’m happy they are continuing to innovate in this area.
This is phenominal – making a good thing even better
Now when will Techcrunch 2.0 Debut
looking good
Any worded on true threaded discussion? Right now, people have to work around this by addressing sibling comments by name. Clearly, there’s a demand for this feature.
The new site has even more polish to it that Digg 2.0, making it look a bit more like a credible news source. I’m not a big user of the friends features, but they seem interesting nonetheless.
They’re definitely moving into the same space as Newsvine with this release, although they’re definitely keeping the site tech-centric (and internet craze-centric with the online video section).
These guys need to go public.
“I was hoping for more of a new UI redesign, something that would break away from the cliche Web 2.0 pastels and make web applications actually look like applications.”
If that involves UI clutter — no thanks.
A reason web sites don’t look like applications is that they aren’t regular applications.
One of the things I like about Digg is it’s simplicity. I stopped using Newsvine because it was trying to do many things. Wire, Vine, Seeds, Top contributors, Feature Writes. Who cares! I just want top relevant news! I hope Digg can still keep it’s simplicity while adding those new features.
no sports category!?!? wtf… could have been under ‘entertainment’ or even its own “Container”. i hope those are old/incomplete screens.
ascendancy…pure ascendancy baby.
Looks really good, tho Digg looks good as is…
I also prefer the Simplicity of the site but Slashdot looks alot cleaner now also, they just need to get their news up faster… hehe
But isn’t this the same teenage gamer community with a broader range of topics to “w00t” about? Digg can’t upgrade its community to compete with the likes of the one on reddit, for instance.
@Search Engines WEB
Uh, I believe this IS Techcrunch 2.0…
Okay heres the deal, Digg is the best site because of how simple it looks and is to operate. i’m glad that digg is keeping the original feel
Go Digg.Com, Go All the way to the NASDAQ….
KaChing
SSee ya there! Soon
wow nice designs!
“Digg surpassed rival Slashdot long ago”
Wrong. Alexa stats are heavily skewed for some sites. Since it’s a Windows only toolbar (and that’s how they track users) and since Digg users are obsessed with Alexa stats, it shows as having higher traffic than it really does.
Slashdot (whose users run *nix based OS more than Digg users and aren’t obsessed with Alexa) is thus shown as having less traffic than it really has.
Netcraft (netcraft.com) for example shows Slashdot as having significantly more traffic than Digg currently.
So please, stop throwing out this “Digg is bigger than Slashdot” unless you have actual stats.
Looking good! Can’t wait for 3.0!
I was hoping for more friends functionality. From the screen shots looks like I will be very pleased come Monday
–Jon Z
I don’t see a Digg Sports section? That was one Digg Topic section I was hoping for. I think a World Sports section would bring a lot more trafic to the site.
“These guys need to go public.”
That’s the most retarded thing I’ve ever heard. What is this, 1998?
They should stay private as long as they can. Be masters of their own destiny, and not have to answer to jokers only interested in flipping their stock.
@ Jon, comment number 18
Actually, according to those who crowd the comments, Digg users are Mac fanbois. … Just repeating what I saw.
@ Jon
Regarding Alexa Stat Innacuracy:
I understand how you could be angered over a traffic claim based on one set of stats, but you’re rebuttal (claiming that Slashdot is bigger because of the Netcraft stats) is just as foolish. There tend to be stats to back up both sides of an argument, when we’re talking about two successful websites… especially with no one authority on traffic!
)
when is Pligg 3.0 coming out
Looks great!
Mike, one note from the podcast: Netscape Editors have their little box to feature 3-4 stories they like yes, but we don’t screw with the users list of the top stories… we know that the list needs to be pure.
I just watched John Rhodes’ (of WebWord.com) usability review of the Digg UI the other day. I wonder how well the new site holds to up against some of the issues John pointed out in his review.
John’s review costs $5, but is worth it if you’re any sort of designer or UI developer. Here’s a link:
http://www.webw...iew-of-diggcom/
I am bit concerned about the so called changes that they have considered as they have not proven to be as effective for other related digg site copycats. These copycats have tried and failed to properly implement the digg concept to non-tech related articles. More so, the trend in this popular site has always been towards technology related news. Now, they are expanding their base to include other non-tech related categories like news and music. So, this is a bold attempt that could otherwise jeapordize their credentials as a tech news focused portal? On the other hand, will it be able to attract a more wider audience and take off? Nevertheless, I applaud them for their efforts in revolutionizing the way we access relevant information on the web.
I think digg has this growth effect on you, ever since I discovered it I haven’t been able to stop coming there. Now I get pretty much all my news from there. It’s definetly waaaayyyy better then /. .
The good is getting better. Digg has become my favorite web site on the Net over the past year. Keep of the great work.
This looks great! Digg is my main source of info now. Slashdot has become too slow and too boring.
“Digg is looking more and more like the newspaper of the web…And the amazing thing is that Digg does all of this with just 15 employees.”
Ummm, Digg is not the newspaper of the web. It may (or may not) be a great news aggregator and community site for discussion of said news, but it’s not a newspaper. It doesn’t publish news – it allows its audience to post links to items of interest across the Interweb, and then discuss them.
This is why it can have just 15 employees. No need to employ any journalists.
Before you go saying, ‘great’, what happens if you take all the old media out of the equation – so you’ve got no NY Times, Washington Post, CNN, BBC etc. What would all the Digg items about current world events point to?
Don’t get me wrong. Digg’s great fun, but let’s call it what it is. And it ain’t no newspaper.
800,000 uniques and 9,000,000 pageviews is impressive. How much revenue are they generating? Are they cash flow positive?
@Matt -
Hardly any of the links on Digg are to the NYTimes, WaPo, CNN, etc.
They mostly point to blog posts and other quirky news items.
In unrelated news…
UmmYeah.com, a relatively unknown in the industry by one guy in his basement, just did 25,000 pageviews after a silent launch 4 weeks ago.
At UmmYeah.com, we’re working on a hosted digg-esque solution that’ll allow anyone to create their own social news aggregrator.
It’ll be kind of a Blogger.com for digg-esque sites — allowing you to create a site (i.e. sports.ummyeah.com or web2.ummyeah.com) and customize it using your own theme, etc.
Speaking of which – now that there are a few major players in the industry – I think we need a term for these kinds of sites (instead of just digg-esque).
Any ideas?
Oops. That’s 25k pageviews in a day, of course. (not much compared to Digg, but it shows the potential of these kinds of sites)
Fez – yeah, we call them Digg-Clones.
Do we call blogs “Slashdot” clones?
Here are photos from tonight’s Digg v3 launch party in San Francisco: http://laughing...3-party-photos/
Well Mike, there were sites applying the same concept as Digg before Digg was conceived. Digg however ended up being successful because Kevin did a hell of a job – except for when they sued digg.de a few months ago for trademark infringement (or was it just a C&D letter? I’m not sure), despite the German site had been running under that name since 1998. I’ve seen eBay acquiring country domain names in a much smoother and less threatening way, and that’s a company with a much powerful legal machinery.
Fez, I take your point in the way its given – as a friendly jab.
RBA – I don’t know anything about digg.de, but digg was the first site that I know about that had such a pure, simple and brilliant model. I think that Flickr and delicious were successful for similar reasons.
I Dig Digg: The Newspaper of The Web, More Popular Than SlashDot…
…But, Couldn’t They Add a “Sports” Section?
.Com’On!!!
It’s hard to say whether digg is going to succeed in other areas as well. Digg’s simple style is what tech geeks like. It’s not necessary the favorite of everybody. Let’s wait and see.
Mike, exactly. Digg nailed it in many ways. I know of at least one site (now defunct btw) that had a very similar concept: Users submit links to stories, users vote, most relevant news get featured. But the UI was not nearly as direct as Digg. That’s why I said that Kevin did a hell of a job, and made it clear and simple where others simply didn’t.
I think timing is also an issue. User generated content wasn’t as mainstream a few years ago as it is now. There was plenty, but in niches, web forums, email lists and so on. Digg solved a problem at the right time, and I think that’s also part of its success.
As for the comments regarding whether Digg will reach out of the geeky population, I don’t think it’s *that* important. Digg may be a reference for geeks, but regardless how much of a minority that is, Digg has likely attracted more geeks than any other site – who wouldn’t want that? Besides, does every site need to conquer mass-regular-joe-adoption within weeks? Can anyone say that if 10 weeks from now Digg’s traffic is still 90% geeky, they failed? Personally I think it’s going to work pretty well…
I will be waiting to see what Digg v3 has to offer. What users really need is speed and efficient web access. I hope Digg sees this need.
Hmm, will the Diggnation vid/podcast also include non-tech stories as well? Could be fascinating for Kevin and Alex talk about showbiz stuff.
Yawn.
I look forward to this because Digg is beginning to get bogged down with crap I’m not interested in (way too many links to “Cool Flash Stuff”). I also think the Digg model would work well if applied to subjects other than tech.
This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. A chance to submit a lot more posts to Digg.
I think the biggest lesson with Digg is the clean interface. I think Web users don’t want crap on the site — it’s a mental thing were they think, if I go to Yahoo right now, I will have to wade through a bunch of ads and stuff I don’t want. But I know Digg just gives me these links and that’s it.
Looks fantastic and timing is good…I was just asking my buddy the other day if he new of a comparable site with additional categories. Looking forward to Monday.
Looks fantastic and I look forward when it launch.