go2web2, normally an even tempered blog, points out that new startup SuperGu copies everything about Digg except their name and goes off on them a bit. And to add insult to injury, they say it was “inspired by Meneame, Del.icio.us and Reddit,” ignoring Digg completely.
The screen shots do look just about identical - SuperGu hasn’t just copied the Digg idea but the look and feel as well. We’ll see if Digg fires up the lawyers, or turns the other cheek.
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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?
Well, Blogg-Buzz is also a cheap copy… http://www.blogg-buzz.com
What an interesting story… I wonder how other Web 2.0 pundits have missed it. {sarcasm}
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
lame mike just lame
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.
Oh, for the love of all that is holy…a digg-clone?!?!
Is it April 1st already?
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.”
Pligg is the same thing…
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/
[irony]LIES!!!! LIES AND SLANDER. They didn’t copy Digg they have the main content on the right side[/irony]
If they work better than Digg, they’re welcommed!
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.
i’ve tracked about 30 popurls clones that even copied the frontend code. the given example is extreme but hey, admiration happens.
Guys don’t seem to have taken their marketing lessons too seriously.
http://www.tekno-world.blogspot.com
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.
@ 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.
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
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….
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.
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…
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?
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
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
“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..
I just have to add this - GU IT!
and
Gu’d
un-Gu!
Makes me chuckle. They won’t be much for competition.
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’.
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.
@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.
@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.
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.
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
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.
ri.di.culo.us thid 3D Killer … how can i people do this.
Did he copy the .js files either? lol
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
As if Digg was even remotely close to being the first of its kind.
Ha! ‘Tis to laugh
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
If you’re gonna post about every Digg copy, then you’re gonna be a busy lil’ blogger! There’s a ton.
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.
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.
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/
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
@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.
copiers die very soon…the more visitors the more infamous…
The Sarcastic Idiocy Forum does not copy anyone’s look and feel.
http://www.thesif.net/SIF/index.php?
From what I read I like the idea of using tagging to display related breaking stories.
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.
@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….
Someone just posted a link to this article on the web site. Wonder how many diggs, excuse me, votes it will get…
So funking what? Who cares about another Digg clone? There are already tons of them