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September 19, 2007

Does Digg Want To Be Facebook?

Duncan Riley

29 comments »

Digg is to offer new features today that will provide social networking functionality akin to Facebook and MySpace.

Digg users will now have full profile pages that allow them to connect to friends and share stories that may other wise not hit the main page of Digg.

Digg users will also be able to chat with one and other, and leave messages on user profiles; a similar feature to the Facebook wall.

The news has met with mixed reactions by Digg users, with some suggesting a name change to “Diggspace” may be coming. The group story sharing feature was noted with this comment:

The best part is that if you decide to use any of these new features and spread stories you’re into around to all your friends, you’ll get banned for gaming the system. Great idea!

Notably, the new link sharing features put Digg into competition with Kevin Rose’s other startup: Pownce. It will be interesting to see how Digg builds the features out given the obvious conflict building between the two.

Update: Kevin Rose has now posted to the Digg blog with the changes, demo video as below


Rose also said that Digg was moving towards offering new features in the future including:
* Digg Images: A dedicated images section (with thumbnails). Still on track to launch in late October.
* Revamped Comments: No more ajax loads, new clean and lightweight design (similar to the old comment system).
* Digg Alerts: Alerts will give you the ability to create customized email alerts - when a story becomes popular, summaries of popular stories on specific topics, and when your friends recommend stories.
* Story Suggest: Dozens of servers crunch the math to provide you with real-time recommendations (stories and friends) based on what you’ve dugg in the past.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 at 11:20 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. trevo

    September 19th, 2007 at 11:28 am

    Lets hope that this announcement will mark the day that “Social Networking” jumps the shark.

  2. John Doe

    September 19th, 2007 at 11:32 am

    @trevo - let’s hope. My god, is everyone just slapping “social networking” features on their products and hoping that it will take them past their initial growth? Some products are good at what they do and should be left at that…god curse Web 2.0 and everyone who keeps chasing that tail.

  3. cl8ton

    September 19th, 2007 at 11:37 am

    Funny, Rose nut-kicked Netscape when they “RIPPED OFF” digg !
    Some things do not need to be shared!

  4. Derek

    September 19th, 2007 at 11:37 am

    Remember when Kevin Rose pooh-poohed “me too” features, such as tags?

    http://blog.wired.com/monkeybi.....id=1556133

  5. coolalexman

    September 19th, 2007 at 11:37 am

    If it ain’t broken..don’t fix it.

  6. Shack

    September 19th, 2007 at 11:40 am

    Kevin Rose is a overhyped. I don’t see why you guys worship him the way you do. He got lucky with Digg (even though user based news systems had already been around for 5+ years) and now he is struggling to stay afloat by copying other websites.

    Guest speaker at web conferences? Why???

  7. Mikew

    September 19th, 2007 at 11:59 am

    Doesn’t everyone want to be Facebook?

  8. David Litsky

    September 19th, 2007 at 12:09 pm

    Social networks are going to fizzle out soon, the landscape is changing.

  9. Bart

    September 19th, 2007 at 12:13 pm

    i dont use digg, and i probably never will. i have read comments there in order to understand references to “digg commenters”. All tech related blogs love digg (esp. TC) cause they drive traffic to their sites.

    You don’t have to have a full profile page on digg do you?

    It just allows for microcosms to form within digg without competing with the hardcore digg crowd that will, as I understand it, bury /promote stories with heavy hands.

  10. Todd

    September 19th, 2007 at 12:25 pm

    Reminder all the new Digg features are optional, not mandatory, you can use Digg the same way you always have - there are just new tool to connect people with the same interests.

    How is this any different than TechCrunch user meet-up parties? VCs and start-ups getting drunk at Michael Arrington’s house is fun, great way to connect. Digg is doing the same thing.

  11. Dominin

    September 19th, 2007 at 12:31 pm

    Prediction: Next BIG thing is privacy. How novel is that idea huh?

  12. Orli Yakuel

    September 19th, 2007 at 12:45 pm

    Can’t wait to see it in action.
    However, I’m almost sure that the chat option will be a problem exactly because of this comment:

    “The best part is that if you decide to use any of these new features and spread stories you’re into around to all your friends, you’ll get banned for gaming the system. Great idea!”

    Also, I personally think, if they already adding social features, they should add a link to Pownce account from the user page.
    (see screenshot below)
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/orliy1/1408244457/

  13. Lorenz

    September 19th, 2007 at 12:51 pm

    Why is everyone treating “social networking” as some big tag or concept. It’s just becoming a standard. It’s not about being a social networking site. It’s about enabling your user base to connect to each other.

    Every website represents a community of people that share common interests. Enabling those people to communicate to each other in better ways is a good idea no matter what you call it.

    Address books on email accounts where a new feature at some point too, but then they became a standard. Social networking features like profile and user messaging are evolving the same way.

  14. John

    September 19th, 2007 at 12:52 pm

    How many social networking sites do people need? Digg would be better off focusing on what it does well ..err…umm… alright at. If you’ve tried searching the site, you know it sucks. And as time flies by the average user gets dumber, polluting slim pool of interesting links and articles with bogus titles and incorrect summaries.
    Looking at reddit that kept things remarkably simple, I have a feeling trevo’s first comment is the most appropriate. Leave the social networking to other sites and make the best social news/bookmarking site you can.

  15. Anton

    September 19th, 2007 at 1:08 pm

    I must admit, I never quite understood the interest in Digg. Stories are old, inaccurate, and just not that helpful. As always, it just seems that TC tries to cover what they perceive is cool in the blogosphere.

  16. Ash

    September 19th, 2007 at 1:20 pm

    I agree with Lorenz. Social networks are another feature to make a site more interesting. Adding personality to the technology. It’s about the people, not the feature.

  17. Dave Lee

    September 19th, 2007 at 1:25 pm

    social bookmarking is only popular within blogger and webmasters. o, and ppl who has too many times digging out “dumb” news from the web. would normal ppl in this era really have that much time to check out what other ppl surfed? probably not those ppl who drives our economy.

  18. Dave Lee

    September 19th, 2007 at 1:31 pm

    another thing, a company like Digg needs to do a lot of copying in order to report to their investor how much work they have been doing.

    if they are just keep doing what they are doing, their VC will put them in the board room and give them a hard time.

    otherwise how to spend all the $$? and make the business “solid”?

  19. Steve Ballmer

    September 19th, 2007 at 1:37 pm

    Digg? I don’t get it.
    Itried to use it a few times and was just confused. It didn’t help me one little bit.
    Why they would want to be like a thing like FB with all of those ugly websites I don’t get either.
    http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

  20. John Graham-Cumming

    September 19th, 2007 at 1:40 pm

    Hmm. How about actually doing ’social news’ inside Facebook? Looks to me like Kevin Rose ripped off my Wildfire Facebook application.

    John.

  21. Bob

    September 19th, 2007 at 2:27 pm

    I am not sure I will use all the new features of Digg, but I really like the video demo of the new Digg features on Youtube. Anybody know what software they used to create the video?

  22. Your Daddy

    September 19th, 2007 at 4:28 pm

    I think this is a good move. Digg has a huge following so why not try to keep them there longer.

  23. Aidan Henry

    September 19th, 2007 at 5:14 pm

    Hey Duncan,

    As you mentioned, I think Digg is moving more toward a Pownce-type concept. I posted my thoughts here:

    http://www.mappingtheweb.com/2.....l-network/

    Cheers,
    Aidan

  24. Bart

    September 19th, 2007 at 7:05 pm

    moving toward?

    pownce will be integrated with digg.

  25. Don Wilson

    September 19th, 2007 at 8:48 pm

    Social networks and blogs have been here for many years before the keywords “social network” and “blog” have been existent. They’re nothing new and the space isn’t crowding in. Get over yourselves, please.

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