While Digg seems hard pressed to break out of its geek-infested niche, other sites are using Digg-like voting mechanisms to attack a much larger and much less tech savvy crowd: celebrity gossip aficionados.
This evening the newest, Showhype, launches, joining a number of existing sites. More on each below:
Lipstick: A Conde Naste site powered by Reddit, which Conde Naste acquired in late 2006.
Dotspotter: Launched June 2006, and just acquired by CBS for $10 million.
SugarLoving: Described by Sugar Inc. CEO as “Digg for Chicks.” It launched last month and already has massive page views, thanks to the affiliated blogs that link into it. It covers everything from tech to fashion, from a woman’s point of view.
ShowHype: The newest of the bunch - it launches this evening. This is from the same Silicon Valley- based startup that launched BallHype in April. Users can see top news on the home page or drill down to keep track of specific movies, television shows or celebrities, all based on tagging.
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If you’re into Hollywood in a big way, or even if you’re the more casual type who secretly wants to know what exactly is going on with Lindsey Lohan, Kate Hudson, and Justin Timberlake, then ShowHype should be a must-bookmark destination. I’ve enjoyed using BallHype for better than six months now, and have found the site fun and easy to use - even addicting. As the community grows, ShowHype should make a strong appearance as well.
This looks great, congrats to the ShowHype team! I’ve been a big fan of BallHype for a while now. Blog aggregation combined with the community rankings is a fun way to get the news. The more I’ve used BallHype, the more I’ve liked it.
If there was a Nobel Prize for The Internet - Digg would certainly qualify.
It is one of those one in a million ideas - like YouTube, Hotmail, Wikipedia etc- that changes traditions and causes disruption and opens up new frontiers in
The Web.
It’s business model is felt now in virtually all major Web sites - impressive, since it has only been in existance less than three years
yikes.
what is going on with the user interface on sugarloving? the confectionary site name and corresponding bubble hearts are dripping girly. i have not followed celebrity news in a long spanner, so would not be the targeted demographic, but the site appears tweenie in a mary kate and ashley olsen fan base sort of way.
i signed up anyhow. thanks techcrunch!
Well, think about it.
We keep talking about the web “built by the users”.
What is the quickest easiest way to have someone contribute? By asking them just one click - a click that defines whether they liked it or not. Quite a powerful, yet painless click.
Get a life!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
I agree, Something needs to be done with the Interface.
9rules Clips (http://9rules.com/clips/) looks like it will take those over faster and covers a wider range of topics than even Digg and also adds tagging and content type selection to the mix. The problem is most people who read gossip don’t want to go searching for it and submitting it, they just want to read it. Let Perez Hilton do all the reporting, the public just wants to read.
Lipstick has been around for a while and I’m not sure whether it is poor marketing or the audience really doesn’t care, but the site doesn’t seem that active. Great way for lesser known sites to get some Googlejuice I guess, but nothing more. Even Sugar’s site (their network has a huge audience) doesn’t even seem to be gaining any traction.
There is another one which as yet is not full of tripe over at http://www.smoochr.com. May be worth including that in your list?
Lipstick is one that I visit often too, more for a laugh though
In case anyone’s interested… here is a site I created for Sportscar and Auto Racing aficionados. The Digg style page is located here: http://www.topgearnews.com/community/index.php
Other pages are Popurls style.
Critiques welcome
Thanks!
Wow yet another digg clone in the market.
http://vidsonly.blogspot.com
Looks like a cool site. I will be submitting my blog to their service.
http://www.celebrityroyale.com
Also, check out http://www.femaledrama.com which looks like it launched a few weeks ago. It appears to be made for women, but focused mainly on drama related stories, dating and relationship issues. Has some pretty interesting content.
CurryPlanet.com is the digg for Indians worldwide. It has been recently launched.
CurryPlanet.com is the Indian digg.
I think that will users to narrow down their search those looking for specific topics.
Sugar is gross. It appeals to the lowest common denominator of women so I am not surprised they are doing well - there are millions of superficial women out there - but from an innovation standpoint it’s lame, lame, lame. And the site is becoming increasingly derivative (sugar sites are a rip off of Gawker and Digg, for example). Where’s the innovation? Just another example of a company that brings nothing new to the marketplace but does well by being a bottom- feeder. Woo-hoo!
Eva, what websites do you suggest then? I’d love to hear about some sites that are not “gross” and appeal to someone intelligent, like yourself.
I Just want you to know that dotspotter.com steals content from regular celebrity gossip bloggers and republishes the content without permission.
The best digg-influenced interface I’ve seen was at http://contrastream.com
It just looks great and not the standard pligg-template design. Somewhat of a mix between onmylist.com and digg.com
Em, unfortunately, I don’t think there are too many great sites for women out there but that’s slowly starting to change and I think there will be more with time. But, unlike Sugar, a lot of the sites which I don’t think are great still sometimes have good stuff. I’m not a big fan of iVillage because it’s also pretty dumbed-down but sometimes I see something there that is interesting (mostly in the parenting area). In fact, I feel that way about most women’s sites, they’re not great but they have some good stuff sometimes. But, on Sugar, all I see is crap that would appeal to the most superficial girls out there, and this is true even in their Health section - I am amazed at how they even managed to dumb down HEALTH stuff. I hardly knew that was possible but that seems to be the Sugar way. And, in response to your comment about my intelligence - just because I don’t like Sugar doesn’t mean that I think I’m a genius or holier-than-thou. I just think the site is lame and I am just pointing out what it is, a site that capitalizes on women’s appetite for crap. I mean, good for Sugar and their investors, but as a woman, I don’t have to respect what they do even if it makes business sense. And , btw, Em, I am stunned to see someone actually defending Sugar. Who are you? A Sugar employee? The attitude in your comment implies that you disagree with my description that Sugar is shallow, and that you actually think the site is substantive which is a strange position to put forth unless you’re a 23 year old who loves Angelina Jolie (in which case I doubt you read TechCrunch) or you work at Sugar. You can admit Sugar is shallow and that you love it anyway, and tell me to not be so judgmental, which might be credible and fair. But although your brief comment does not come out and say you think the site is substantive, it definitely seems like you think that, and that just strains credibility.
Nice site, decent functionality but weak interface.