If You Copy Digg, At Least Thank Them

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1. Bob
   

   January 11th, 2007 at 2:16 am

   Hey mike, it’s so hard to get a website reviewed from you. Now i wonder, should I copy famous sites that you keep talking about like digg, edgedio, digg and digg to get a review?

2. Anonymous
   

   January 11th, 2007 at 2:16 am

   Well, Blogg-Buzz is also a cheap copy… http://www.blogg-buzz.com

3. Ankit
   

   January 11th, 2007 at 2:21 am

   What an interesting story… I wonder how other Web 2.0 pundits have missed it. {sarcasm}

4. Duncan
   

   January 11th, 2007 at 2:22 am

   It’s not the first Digg layout clone I’ve seen around the place either, indeed I’ve seen closer layout and look rips than these guys

5. lameitis
   

   January 11th, 2007 at 2:23 am

   lame mike just lame

6. Robin Wauters
   

   January 11th, 2007 at 2:29 am

   My guess is they used Pligg to develop the platform, a derivative service of Meneame. And they don’t hide the fact they copied most of Digg’s concept: http://meneame.net/faq-es.php#we

   Anyway, there’s a lot of sites like this. I have no idea why you picked this one in particular.

7. doug
   

   January 11th, 2007 at 2:35 am

   Oh, for the love of all that is holy…a digg-clone?!?!

   Is it April 1st already?

8. Laurent Van Winckel
   

   January 11th, 2007 at 2:42 am

   The guy behind it is known as Inboxnews and also “3d killer”. He first used Pligg for his own site and then decided to make his own digg-software-killer.
   But uhm, ever heard of “bad advertisement is always better than no advertisement.”

9. Felipe
   

   January 11th, 2007 at 2:42 am

   Pligg is the same thing…

10. Tim
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 2:45 am

    Well shoot, I thought it was interesting - and wow, after looking at their screenshots it’s really obvious they have just blatantly used digg graphics and design eg. the user icon, and the spy layout

    http://bla.st/blog/

11. Razvan Antonescu
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 3:11 am

    [irony]LIES!!!! LIES AND SLANDER. They didn’t copy Digg they have the main content on the right side[/irony]

12. luca filigheddu
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 3:14 am

    If they work better than Digg, they’re welcommed!

13. Kevin
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 3:16 am

    In much the same way citeulike was copied by connotea (in function and execution if not in UI) and they claimed they were delicious inspired and didn’t mention citeulike.

14. thomas
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 3:42 am

    i’ve tracked about 30 popurls clones that even copied the frontend code. the given example is extreme but hey, admiration happens.

15. Rajeev Vashisht
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 4:00 am

    Guys don’t seem to have taken their marketing lessons too seriously.

    http://www.tekno-world.blogspot.com

16. dave
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 4:23 am

    sorry michael, but you’ve got this all wrong - i’ve been in touch with the dudes behind both pligg and supergu for a long while and hope that these notes will shine some light on your misunderstanding…

    meneame.net was the first ‘digg clone’ done in spanish, they released the code and a couple of young guys translated it all and created pligg.com - people were really excited…the pligg guys spent a lot of time working on smarty templating to enhance the cms’ functionality, but it slowed down performance and so a young man known as “3dkiller” proposed a set of ideas to the pligg core dudes, they rejected them, and so he went off on his own…

    last spring, 3d began work on supergu and by fall 06 had a reasonable demo up and running built from meneame and not pligg (dropped the smarty templating) and you can see a demo at http://www.getgui.com - and it combines elements of newsvine, reddit, delicious, etc…digg is not mentioned because many of us feel that digg is really just a drupal.org clone repurposed as a news site (drupal users will know what i’m talking about)

    supergu is an open project, free and to be delivered ’soon’ (this spring) with a template that is loosely based on many social news sites (including digg, netscape, reddit, etc)….there is a code batch on the site that is loosely based on meneame, and there are also links to download newscloud.com’s code as well (yet another ‘digg clone’ in your take on this, though not mentioned)…

    again, supergu will be free, but there is yet another project at http://www.blinkk.org that seeks to benefit commercially from offering a digg-style app that is strikingly similar to supergu (and in turn, digg and others)…but they have been rather stealthy, so no idea if they’re already selling their software.

    in the interim, there are many other projects as well, from the abandoned scuttle.org project to the highly sophisticated connotea.org project for an academic version of a social news site….

    my point? these are not ripoff sites…digg is a simple vote system with a simple forum style content posting core…you could build your own version in drupal in about 3 days (or less) or work with something like pligg or supergu or scuttle or connotea or newscloud to get there….a million sites have copied flickr, orkut, match, furl and so on, yet i have yet to see you personally rip them up.

    clearly you did not take the time to contact 3d or members of the pligg community before authoring this story, proving once again that you are only posturing and taking a rather sorry approach to realizing journalistic integrity.

17. Ramanathan
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 4:33 am

    @ Comment 2:

    Blogg-buzz is a very nice site dedicated for bloggers. Digg and Kevin Rose dont like blogs at all. Kevin will understand the power of blogging soon.

    Blogg-buzz is sure going to be a hit.

18. bdthomas
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 4:38 am

    Surely that’s just some sick joke to get attention…all of that could have been done in photoshop. If its real, I give up.

    -Ben

19. Ashish Mohta
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 4:42 am

    Well Blogg-buzz is surely digg like a site but its not a clone.There is no intention to copy it.But Idea is from there, i would agree on that.

    Blogg-Buzz will be different, new bloggers wont have to struggle a lot.The bloggers will be easy to find.I dont have anyt/hing against digg or its users, but because of sploggers they are hated.

    Blogg buzz will rock sooner or later.It might not happen in a day but when it does….

20. The Foo
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 4:48 am

    Unless they patented the technology, there are going to be clones and copycats out there. I can’t say this for sure but the question is, does Digg or anyone actually have the actual rights to the technology? On the other side of this, they may not want to patent it as it might expose some tech secrets/ procedures of how they do things.

    The whole issue would also probably be of who wrote the code and implemented it first — that may be a little tough to prove. Digg may not be the first one to do it (I may be wrong) but they certainly made their name big with it… so everyone actually assumes they came to the block first with their idea.

    The other question is… does Digg even care? My feeling is — probably not. However, you never know … with how fast the web and tech related things change and how fickle minded people are, you are only as good as your last minute on the http://WWW.

21. Jonathan
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 4:52 am

    Wow - this story seems to have touched a nerve with a number of people…

    The popularity of digg is similar to that of myspace - it has reached some kind of critical mass in terms of users, where so many people use it that they will not bother with other sites, regardless of how bad the site really is or their reservations about the mechanisms going on behind the site…

22. SearcH EngineS WeB
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 5:14 am

    Did anyone notice as of the latest Google PageRank Update that is occurring now

    DIGG has a PR0 on most of the 700 datacenters A few PR7 and a Handful of PR8

    http://www.digpagerank.com/

    What is Going on?

23. bdthomas
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 5:15 am

    It’s not so much copying the functionality that bothers me. There are many sites with many similarities. It is the obvious look/feel rip that makes me wonder what they were thinking. Surely they could have been a little more creative with font sizes and colors.

    I guess time will tell what the differentiating factors really are.

    -Ben

24. Allen Stern
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 5:19 am

    Search Engines Web - I wonder if Google took my advice in my post posted a couple weeks ago that actually had at least 50% of people agreeing with me!

    “WTF Dept: Why is Digg in Google Search Results”
    http://www.centernetworks.com/.....ch-results

25. Adrian Keys
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 5:26 am

    “It’s not so much copying the functionality that bothers me. There are many sites with many similarities. It is the obvious look/feel rip that makes me wonder what they were thinking. Surely they could have been a little more creative with font sizes and colors…

    I guess time will tell what the differentiating factors really are”.

    -Ben

    Yes Ben I agree with giving them sometime, its a hard world but would hate to see these guys faced with negative coverage and a barage of legal issues before even a chance to establish and distinguish themselves…

    Also lets bear in mind its a free market and tells Digg they are doing something right..

26. Jonathan Jiang
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 5:29 am

    I just have to add this - GU IT!
    and
    Gu’d
    un-Gu!

    Makes me chuckle. They won’t be much for competition.

27. josh
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 6:14 am

    Yea, but who cares if they copy. Digg has already filled the niche, so its not like anyone can make something big using it.

    Plus, with software like Pligg, everyone thinks they can do it. It’s kind of funny to see people make these sites, and then have 2 or 3 ‘diggs’.

28. John McKay
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 6:18 am

    agree with many of the readers above. Meaneame and then pligg and then many came out but that does not mean it was a copy of digg.

    Mike, do you ever criticize about digg at all? is this the best digg related story that you can pull off?

    Why not talk about http://www.techtagg.com or http://www.digitaljournal.com? techtagg was the first one to do revenue sharing for such digg like site. Which should be really looked into. Now look at digitaljournal.com, they are also revenue sharing for content providers for almost similar concept.

    do you remember what happened to friendster.com when myspace came about?

    I think something like that would be news worthy.

29. Frank Cefalu
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 6:28 am

    @dave

    Ok…Shit head

    http://www.supergu.com/forum/showthread.php?t=256

    Go there and go to post #10, HE EVEN SAID HE COPIED DIGG.

30. Mike Blasdel
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 6:45 am

    @dave
    There is a difference between ripping off someone’s idea and concept. Its another thing to actually rip the style and graphics as well.

31. Ymerej
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 7:04 am

    Pligg no longer uses smarty and has improved performance greatly in the past couple of months. Pligg did not reject 3d because of his ideas. He’s got personality problems that prevent him from working with other people. So after months of delays and nothing but photoshop produced pictures he might release some software that doesn’t seem to even compare with the quality and features of Pligg.

32. Zoli Erdos
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 7:18 am

    All the copycats seem to forget that the “secret sauce” is not in the functionality/appearance of the site. It’s the network effect, and it’s too late .. Digg owns it

33. Josh
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 7:20 am

    Im not sure I care if they use Pligg, connotea, or whatever else…

    The real reason this was posted was just in distaste. No one likes a copycat and if Superglu believes they will experience any success, they are living in a dreamworld.

    Where has all the innovation gone? Copycats will eventually die off, its just the general annoyance in the beginning that fires people up.

34. Rafael Santos Sá
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 7:36 am

    ri.di.culo.us thid 3D Killer … how can i people do this.
    Did he copy the .js files either? lol

35. Nickie
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 7:41 am

    If anyone should copyright/patent the technology, I think it should be Slashdot and not Digg. Copycats is not just now. Look at Microsoft Windows, where did Microsoft get the idea from?

    I see a lot of hatred from these comments except for comments from Dave.

    Thanks Dave for your comments

36. Been Around Longer Than 10 Minutes
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 7:41 am

    As if Digg was even remotely close to being the first of its kind.

    Ha! ‘Tis to laugh

37. andrew
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 7:42 am

    To Zoli (#31) above … ‘digg owns it’

    I was an avid slashdotter. Checked it all day, subscribed to feeds, they seemed unstoppable, the “owned it”. It was very education watching how quickly that dissappeared as digg caught on. My point is that digg is far from invincable. That said, such a blatant duplication is not the thing that will unseat digg.

    Recently (last 2 or 3 months), my digg fascination has seriously declined. Driven mainly by too much content, off the wall content, and niche rule (supposed to be mob rule).

    ==============================
    http://www.techcrunch2skype.com

38. Matt
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 7:59 am

    If you’re gonna post about every Digg copy, then you’re gonna be a busy lil’ blogger! There’s a ton.

39. Dan Shields
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 8:02 am

    Dave your an idiot, they copied digg not only by having the same exact functionality but the same exact design. I would say it would be one thing if they only copied the functionality, but to go as far as copying every design element is pretty laughable for you to say they didn’t.

40. Nickie
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 8:06 am

    Andrew. I totally agree with you. … blatant duplication will not unseat digg. However, I don’t see so much fire in Digg for 2007.

    Digg is not like Google and the likes. There is nothing to Digg’s underline technology. It can easily be reproduced by any savvy web 2.0 programmer. Digg should enjoy its 2-5 years of fame before it lasts. I guess 5 years may be pushing it. So let’s wait and see.

41. Nickie
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 8:12 am

    Dan Shields, you are calling Dave an idiots….then what do you have to say to German Facebook clone, Studivz, reported here by Mike and got sold for $132? Studivz is a complete clone of Facebook before the current Facebook site’s face lift.

    http://www.techcrunch.com/2007.....0-million/

42. Jon
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 8:16 am

    Oreilly was also accused of copying. See the following blog for detailed discussion on why so many websites have the look&feel of digg.

    http://radar.oreilly.com/archi.....wds_1.html

43. Robert Dewey
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 8:18 am

    @8

    I’m not sure if I buy the whole ‘bad advertising is better than no advertising’ mantra - if Mike posts a pile of shit, sure people may ’step on it’, but will they keep going back for more? I wouldn’t think so.

    In this case, Mike just found an interesting rip-off site. Sure there are a lot of look-alike services, but this instance is funny because the founder(s) thank every service except it’s twin - Digg.

44. Terry Xu
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 8:20 am

    copiers die very soon…the more visitors the more infamous…

45. Political.Asylum
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 8:25 am

    The Sarcastic Idiocy Forum does not copy anyone’s look and feel.

    http://www.thesif.net/SIF/index.php?

46. Andy Beard
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 8:25 am

    From what I read I like the idea of using tagging to display related breaking stories.

47. Terry Xu
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 8:42 am

    reply to #40 Nickie
    “Dan Shields, you are calling Dave an idiots….then what do you have to say to German Facebook clone, Studivz, reported here by Mike and got sold for $132? Studivz is a complete clone of Facebook before the current Facebook site’s face lift.”

    —————–

    Yeah…but clones in another country is slightly different, especially the facebook case…in that….besides functionalities and designs, the success of this kind of website also highly depends on a well understanding of domestic systems and conditions…

    the cloners definitely have more resources about and closer relationships with domestic colleges, universities and even high schools. It’s much hard for an US company to have someone to gather those info from ground up to really make it usable for foreign users.

    The Chinese facebook clone xiaonei.net in fact looks almost exactly the same as facebook except the boy face has been substituted with a girl’s…and it’s been sold at a good price…the CEO/founder even openly admitted that it’s a copy of facebook and think there is nothing to criticize.

    But having said that…these sites survived because they’ve got better knowledge in their homelands than their US originator.

48. dave
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 8:44 am

    @FRANK and MIKE and DAN:

    an idiot? a shithead? dudes, i don’t even know you…just as i wouldn’t presume to know what motivates you to offer zero in the way of insightful commentary beyond a flame and an attack, i also wouldn’t presume to know that you’ve reviewed the supergu, meneame or pligg code or core features to understand the differences…there are blogging features built into supergu that are very different from digg (just one random example)

    as for overall utility, the whole point of cloning digg is to cater to the many niche interests and community sites that do not benefit from a one-feeds-all portal (which is what digg is turning into with video et al)…there might be, just imagine this, a group of people with one specific area of interest who wish to gather items for one another on their own site, on their own terms, in topics ranging from accounting and bicycling to wakeboarding and zoology - supergu and the other clones will allow for this…

    personally, i’m interested in putting up a supergu site for my own community to track very local news items, possibly specific to the schools and politics in my town (very narrow) - the goal is not just about making money, it’s about offering a tool…

    when blogging took off, nobody went off the deep end shitting on the wordpress guys for out-innovating the mt creators…social and community news sites are a new resource for those interested in such commentary and vehicles with low interest in blogging specifically…these alternatives fill a need.

    my own guess is that within 12 months you will see digg offer the ability to put up your own site at YOU.digg.com - just like blogger.com and the pageflakes of the world…it’s another way to aggregate content, and people will either put in their own sw (supergu is to digg as wordpress is to blogger) or pursue a hosted alternative…

    on a personal aside, you might consider growing up a bit in your communication style….or perhaps you may wish to just go on with your bad selves…how nice it must be, to be so mercifully free from the ravagings of maturity….

49. John
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 8:46 am

    Someone just posted a link to this article on the web site. Wonder how many diggs, excuse me, votes it will get…

50. paav0
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 8:55 am

    So funking what? Who cares about another Digg clone? There are already tons of them

51. steve
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 8:57 am

    yes, because the idea of voting for something is such an innovative idea. maybe the founding fathers should rise from their graves and sue Digg for cloning their idea called democracy.

52. Pligg user
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 9:00 am

    I use pligg on a couple sites but try not to look like digg…

    http://www.prayerdepot.com and
    http://www.howtoendthiswar.com

    are both new sites I have up using pligg… I like to think that I use the technology for a better purpose ….

    Is this bad… ? Is it wrong to use opensource tools that clone an existing sites functionality?

53. Sundar Krishnamurthy
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 9:05 am

    Ironically, this story was the top story on their website! That may have shamed into closing the English version of their site for the time being.

    The site currently redirects to the Spanish version with the layout still similar to Digg’s.

54. John
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 9:10 am

    Not as similar however

55. Kyle
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 9:19 am

    Just use Pligg instead. Been out for almost a year and is more than just a few screen shots.

56. Jason
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 9:31 am

    There will alway be clones out thier always people grabbing market share from others. Its called competition, there was a thing called the Clone Wars and I’m not talking about the terrible movie that would allow the Starwars Logo to grace the title. I was referring to the PC Clone Wars of the 80’s and early 90’s. It will be a matter of time before the market is saturated and it becomes a matter of who can add value and build a community verse the looks I like digg its an interesting name its a relevant name to what the site actually does and has an easier selling point. Its simple its straight forward, unlike SuperGu it cant its different and people will be out scratching thier head to what is really all about.

    I spoke of market share earlier. The existing subscribers and referrels from existing subscribers or the media blitz it receives will continue to attract people to Digg. Supergu on the other sides major subscriber base will come from people unaware of Digg (though I dont know how this will be) and if it can offer more meaningful content then digg. It will come down to what I had said before who can create the most value for its readers and subscriber base.

    Jason
    Chicago IL

57. Frank Cefalu
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 9:36 am

    @dave

    shuttup supergu sucks ass. PLEASE DAVE, tell me the freaking UNIQUE difference between Digg and Supergu? HUH?

    Shit. That guy 3d ass better prepare for lawsuits.

58. PHP MYSQL Web Hosting
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 9:36 am

    Well, this is the part of the proffesion, now the basic example would be “who doesnt want to be Bill Gates”. People always tend to copy the succesful in the perspective of bieng succesful.

59. Jo
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 9:36 am

    Low entry barriers is ever the strategic liability for startups like digg, let’s hope the first mover advantage lasts for a couple more years.

60. Victor
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 9:37 am

    This software is great and I cant wait to use it to power mediarati.com

61. Jason
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 9:39 am

    I could not help but read some of the previous posts. I like Techcrunch alot and I like the ability to comment and putting up your own points of view in essence creating value for the large community as a whole. Though what I dont like to see is the name calling and bashing and slandering that has occured. Lets keep it dignified, lets keep it friendly, lets keep it real. Tech Crunch is not a turf war nor a play ground for two bullies to fight it out.

    Jason
    Chicago IL

62. Nickie
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 9:45 am

    Well said Jason….Bless your heart:) TechCrunch needs more people like you.

63. jim
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 9:45 am

    digg has nothing to sue over - a waste of legal fees.

    I am willing to bet digg also copied someone that never appeared on the map. Atomfilms.com had the first community tube site for filmmakers - years before Youtube came out.

    nothing is original and sacred - can we say DOS code written by Gates? computer and mouse invented by Woz? all ideas were either bought or borrowed.

64. Jay
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 9:51 am

    @ Dave: Jerk! Willy Wagger!

    LOL I love name calling. We’re all so mature here

65. Edugree
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 9:56 am

    That is a horrible rip.

66. devolute
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 9:58 am

    I read the title and thought “Here we go again, more digg fanboys laying into someone who does something even remotely similar to digg”. But then I saw the page… thieves!

67. Chadimus
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 10:03 am

    Just another craptacular clone that collects and displays idiotic comments, same as this site.

68. Spazuchtie
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 10:19 am

    I am a developer.

    I tried working with both SuperGu and Pligg. I wasn’t able to do much with supergu because its nothing more than a screenshot some asshat made with photoshop.

    I do like pligg, however one of the head developers (Yankidank) is a complete dick-head. Pligg lack developers because no one wants to work with that guy.

69. Tim Marman
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 10:30 am

    I’m with Jim. They are similar from a design perspective, but probably not enough so to give rise to a copyright claim. If it’s based on pligg, there’s no copyright claim on stolen code. And unless I’ve seriously been out of the loop, Digg doesn’t have any patents on social news.

    So all the bad will and publicity this has earned SuperGu aside, what could Digg possibly sue for?

70. Victor
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 10:32 am

    I feel strongly that supergu should be branded as mediarati to make a better connection.

71. Alex Becker
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 10:51 am

    Yea who cares. Its not like they will get as much traffic s Digg does.

72. Gaurav
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 10:59 am

    I fully agree with Andrew(#36) and Jason (#60)

    By looking at the language used in the comments here, I am sure that this post has a lot of diggs
    Found this a few days ago: http://tomayko.com/weblog/2006.....-scares-me

73. Patricia
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 11:03 am

    I hate to say this, because nobody likes somebody calling their baby ugly, but I don’t think it’s smart to create digg-like sites at this point.

74. Tom Morris
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 11:17 am

    Wow. Mike Arrington has discovered that open source software exists and can replicate the function of some of the precious Web 2.0 sites. So somebody made an open source digg clone application. Big deal. How many actual implementations can we expect? There would have to be an actual market for their use, and that’s limited at the moment by the number of users who are willing to share their attention with a digg-style site.

75. Nathan Kaiser
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 11:17 am

    I can’t understand why people continue to recreate current services and products without differentiating them. Apple created the iPod, but with an UI that simply out-performed competitors. I get calls / emails all the time from companies that are looking to be featured on my site whose only premise is that they are targeting digg or myspace. That is great, but how do you plan to take them on?

76. Tom Morris
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 11:45 am

    @Nathan Kaiser: how many stories about knitting, kinky sex or kayaking in Kentucky do you see on digg? How many senior citizens do you see on MySpace? This space is right open.

    And if the users truly are in charge as the hype keeps on about (we weren’t in charge at Le Web, btw), then easy to install, open source clones of current sites is something to be welcomed. What’s truly worrying for a lot of these web 2.0 companies is the point where they become useless - when users become a little smarter, pay for a $7 a month hosting account and load it up with powerful open source scripts that replicate and extend the current functionality that they are getting from their hosted apps.

    Yesterday, I sat down and wrote the guts of a del.icio.us clone in half an hour. Why? Because there is functionality that I want that del.icio.us doesn’t provide. There’s no way that I can get del.icio.us to listen to what I want, so I might as well write my own. Dave Winer predicted this with all his talk about how users can become developers but developers can’t become users.

    From a forum post by 3dkiller:
    “Anyway, as of yet, we really haven’t created anything useful based on anyones design. We are working on some stuff, but it’s important to note that nothing has been ‘officially’ announced. By officially, I mean by way of Press release. It’s unfortunate that TechCrunch decided to run with this story without bothering to contact us.”
    http://www.supergu.com/forum/showthread.php?t=277

    If 3dkiller is right, then this has been all a big fuss about some JPEGs produced for marketing.

77. Harj
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 11:45 am

    is this seriously the best thing you could find to write about?

78. fez
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 11:49 am

    @dave: “when blogging took off, nobody went off the deep end shitting on the wordpress guys for out-innovating the mt creators…social and community news sites are a new resource for those interested in such commentary and vehicles with low interest in blogging specifically…these alternatives fill a need.”

    Exactly. I tried explaining this to Arrington in the comments before.

    Similar Technology != Clone (necessarily)

    Digg fanboys find this concept hard to grasp.

    Just like Slashdot, Digg will see its day (could be many years)… Rose should cash out while the going’s hot.

79. Nickie
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 12:13 pm

    … you are right on the money. Digg days are number. Digg should hire you to consult for them b4 it is too late.

    Again, maybe there is something Kevin knows that we all don’t know. I say it again, max 5 years of fame is my prediction for any web business that is not making profit.

80. Patricia
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 12:24 pm

    @ Nathan, I agree - I think it’s a bad idea, particularly within internet business, where there are so many underserved markets and niches to build in. All it takes to find a hole or gap is to do a little homework and learn the market, what’s missing, what’s in demand, but a lot of entrepreneurs, I think, see/hear stories about something like MySpace or YouTube and think it’s easy and that the possibilities are endless for that concept. The thing is, timing, trends, what else exists, longevity of an idea/concept - all kinds of stuff goes into why something works and whether or not there’s room for others to play in it, and everything in tech can change in a matter of years as new things develop. I hate to say it, but I think entrepreneurs who do are either brilliant people who’ve done it before and succeeded enough to be able to pull it off, or are just inexperienced people not really understanding the cons of doing it.

    At least four sites copying the identical concept of our business (people uploading photos of their outfits to diaries/profiles) launched in the past few months and none of them are all that different from eachother. Yet the niche we’re in is so underserved - I am always surprised that nobody looked for what was missing and created it instead.

81. bogeydope
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 12:40 pm

    here is one of his sites on another server
    http://www.flickboy.com/

82. Gil Bates
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 12:55 pm

    When digg launched, did they thank kuro5hin?

    Didn’t think so.

83. Nathan Kaiser
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 1:11 pm

    @Tom Morris - you have some excellent points, but I think you differentiate clearly enough when you say that “I sat down and wrote the guts of a del.icio.us clone in half an hour. Why? Because there is functionality that I want that del.icio.us doesn’t provide.” We are in agreement. It is very difficult, if not impossible to create a clone and win marketshare without differentiation, whether that be additional services, products, features, or within different markets, etc. The one key question that remains is simply, are the differentiating factors strong enough to build a unique audience or steal marketshare from established providers?

84. Iqbal
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 1:54 pm

    Have I missed something or has supergu been hacked http://www.supergu.com, just comes up with…well not much

    Iqbal

85. Tom Morris
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 2:28 pm

    Nathan: “are the differentiating factors strong enough to build a unique audience or steal marketshare from established providers?”

    Well, that’s the issue here. Meneame, Pligg and SuperGu are open source projects designed to make it so that the digg model becomes like the message board model (where setting up a message board takes all of twenty minutes). They aren’t ‘clones’ so much as clone production lines.

    The differentiation is simple - the users and/or the content! Nobody says “well, this blog is using WordPress, as is this one - there isn’t enough differentiation”. They say “this blog has interesting content, but this one doesn’t”. Similarly, if I find a social networking site and all the users speak a language I don’t, it’s not the social networking aspect that’s the problem, it’s that it’s not aimed at me.

    The actual tool is just a proxy or a format. Blog, wiki, digg-style site, personals - it’s just a piece that may or may not be relevant to the audience. Digg’s value is that it’s a great place to go and find out about technology. They’ve got some really not very well thought out categories on there (Celebrity News? Seriously, the overlap between the Slashdot/digg audience and the WeSmirch audience can’t be that big…) that would be very easy for people to spin off.

86. http://www.blogsaic.com/
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 2:59 pm

    This is all you see when you go to supergu.com

    “Does anyone know where this “company” is located? Seems like the antics of a shady Russian/Israeli/Eastern European company, right down to the lame message replacing their front page.”

    they be hacked
    http://digg.com/tech_news/Supergu_Hacked

    and a sinking ship with the digg logo

    whoops

87. dave
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 3:00 pm

    @frank - dude, one HUGE difference: the code behind supergu actually makes it move fast, but since you’re drinking digg koolaid i won’t try to sell you…in fact, hurry back! your mindless attendance can certainly help them drive up their valuation…content gerbils make these things worth money, and they need tons more inbred hamsters and mice to get over 60M….

    @jay - i fart in your general direction

88. Christopher Shannon
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 3:33 pm

    Just in case it reverts back to the original site, here’s a screenshot of the hacked SuperGu site.

    http://www.xtechpc.com/images/superguhack.jpg

89. http://redvsblueblog.net/
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 3:52 pm

    And digg copied fark.com so what”s your point here?

90. Jalepena Rodriguez
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 4:44 pm

    looks like there is something going on here - wish Mike would update his current story to say that these people didnt steal something…

    http://rexduffdixon.com/?p=1323
    from the sites owners:
    Anyway, as of yet, we really haven’t created anything useful based on anyones design. We are working on some stuff, but it’s important to note that nothing has been ‘officially’ announced. By officially, I mean by way of Press release. It’s unfortunate that TechCrunch decided to run with this story without bothering to contact us.

    of course mikey is off to his next big pitch. oh well. i wonder if this group will seek counsel.

91. Tom Smith
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 4:53 pm

    I’m happy there are ppl in this world who see dastardly acts like this happening… too bad nobody ever complains about Microsoft copying Mac OS X blatantly.

92. Paul
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 5:16 pm

    I wish people would RTFA, or at least visit this copycat site. He copied Digg’s design, even their graphics!

93. Neil Kelty
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 5:19 pm

    And looks like this site didn’t last too horribly long.

94. Rulepark
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 5:25 pm

    PLIGG, thanx DIGG.

95. Paul
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 5:42 pm

    That 3d guy is a lunatic. He has been removing Diggers’ comments from public view. He’s created his own little world. He really doesn’t see he’s ripped Digg’s design.

    Just another Web-crazy.

96. David Mackey
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 7:01 pm

    Is it more of a copy than Netscape, etc.?

97. Roy T
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 7:03 pm

    I agree with many of you and especially #16- Dave.

    Digg became the biggest, has the deepest pockets and has the power to humiliate this site and many others, so people kiss their ass. Kevin Rose, grew up in Vegas for the most part, like me, dropped out of college and became an expert in marketing..fast.

    I hesitated for a long time to create a social news site, and pondered what platform to build it on, at the end of the day, you guys can cry and point fingers defending Digg or pligg, but for the average joe internet user, he couldnt give a damn if the site he likes is build on mename, or supergu, or if its digg itself, as long as it gets their attention and does what they like.

    Copying a design is wrong, no matter who you are, but an idea. Cmon guys, Digg was inspired by slashdot.org. Lets not forget that this didnt start with digg, nor will it end with them.

98. boiboi
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 7:13 pm

    Upon closer examination of Supergu, Mike Arrington cancelled his “angel” pitch on his Pligg powered site baby and will now wait for the release of Supergu.

99. Dave G.
    

    January 11th, 2007 at 8:59 pm

    looks like the site has been “hacked” - lol.

100. Sridhar
     

     January 11th, 2007 at 10:20 pm

     Here’s how you can install Pligg: http://www.sridhareena.com/200.....-tutorial/

101. siong1987
     

     January 12th, 2007 at 12:54 am

     The website is hacked now. LOL…

102. DG
     

     January 12th, 2007 at 1:40 am

     Simply, I don’t understand one thing, why on the earth -people don’t want to give accrediation. what goes off their’s, if they say “Thanks” as a gesture.

     DG…

103. Oliver
     

     January 12th, 2007 at 5:36 am

     Well, I do not think it is fair to put Israel in the same line as Russia or Eastern Europe… Most Israeli companies I know are quite open and transparent…

104. Julian
     

     January 12th, 2007 at 12:49 pm

     Good concepts are always getting copied. See these 3:

     http://popurls.com/
     http://theweblist.net/
     http://gadgetglance.com

     Still they refer to each other (at least the 2 copiers).

105. Roy T
     

     January 12th, 2007 at 8:01 pm

     Just so you pligg fans know, the current theme which is given by default was designed by the team I hired to design my site. It is based on the design I had them create for me and I am ok with that.

     That is what theme blog-buzz.com is using. Just so you know.

106. Kotsokotso
     

     January 13th, 2007 at 1:52 am

     I don’t see digg thanking slashdot or newsvine. Also I’ve notice that Pligg folks hangout at Gu forum to watch for whatever feature Gu plans to add and they’ve been adding these mentioned features to Pligg. They’ll be adding the image scraper next. LOL But it’s all good. Plig finally listened and removed smarty!

107. CrunchBack
     

     January 15th, 2007 at 9:52 pm

     Wow! This is post 108. Popular topic and lots of good vitriol to go around.