Michael Arrington wrote on Saturday about a new Digg competitor called Mixx, and how it was attracting “Digg Refugees.” Digg clones or similar social voting sites are far from new, but given this new competition does Digg still come out on top? Since reading Michael’s post I’ve spent time using several Digg-style sites to see if I could find the answer.
Numbers
Numbers should never be the final arbiter of what is good. Windows is still the most widely used operating system world wide but many would argue it is far from the best; however numbers help, and as comScore demonstrates Digg is still the most popular social networking site when compared to three competitors: Reddit, Propeller and Mixx.
It’s hard to make out Propeller on this chart, but with a microscope they are a small blue dot just below the October (green) line for Reddit. Despite some of my previously harsh observations on the service they are doing remarkably well under their new banner; if Reddit sold for a rumored $12m in October 2006, Propeller must be worth around $30-50 million now based on the traffic alone. Mixx is soo small it doesn’t register on comScore’s metrics.
More people use Digg, but does it make them the best service?
Content
Content is something that benefits from a bigger user base, and again Digg has the advantage here. When Propeller launched (originally the old new Netscape) then head Jason Calacanis promised a better version of Digg because the results and top stories would have the guidance of paid guides. It works as much as it provides a broader picture of news stories, but it fails in the same way that any non-democratic decision making process does: it doesn’t always have the support of many. It’s not unusual to see stories on the top of sub-sections (say Tech) on Propeller that had a handful votes despite the site having a reasonable user base that usually sustains stories on mid-range 2 figure sums. If it has two votes, should it be on top? It wouldn’t be on Digg.
Reddit has the problem that despite it providing perhaps the biggest difference in terms of the content and links provided, it appears to be beholden to the political campaigns of Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich. I find some interest in both campaigns given their interesting and often inspiring use of the internet as a campaigning tool, but I’d figure that I’m probably in the minority on that one.
Mixx is getting there. Since Michael’s post the number of people voting on the site has definitely increased and even former Netscape head Jason Calacanis is now participating (a Mahalo link was the top story as I wrote this post).
Usability/ Looks
Appearance is subjective and no two people usually agree on any given site, but there’s just something about Digg. Whether it’s the nice big headlines, the easily accessible voting box and bury buttons, the colors and layout that just work; it could be that it’s a case of familiarity but I just don’t see the same on the other three sites.
Reddit is functional and simplistic, which works for them, but it isn’t pretty to look at, and it’s probably not the best first impression for new users either.
Propeller tries to sit somewhere between Digg and a functional news sites, and it doesn’t do a bad job, but I’ve never felt as comfortable with it. Headlines are smaller and visually it doesn’t feel quite as accessible as Digg; but having said that this is a subjective view only, and others may well disagree. Mixx is remarkably similar to Propeller, soo much so (once you get to the sub pages) that I’d suggest that Mixx isn’t a Digg clone, it’s a Propeller clone.
Overall
One often heard criticism of Digg is that the headlines can only be understood by “insiders,” those that know tech. It’s occasionally a valid criticism but over all Digg’s biggest strength is its depth and variety of content. The politics pages don’t require an in-depth understanding of the latest screen manager for Linux, nor do many of the sub-categories. Redditt is Digg’s closest competitor appeal wise, but it doesn’t have the depth and variety of news headlines. Propeller and Mixx will have the greatest appeal to a new, non-geek/ non-first adopter audience, but that very same audience may not be quiet as embracing of social voting itself. It’s the right demographic to appeal to because it’s an untargeted audience, but Digg continues to gain new followers as well as its audience broadens (despite the small decline in the comScore graph); call it a race for middle America.
On what I’ve seen I still believe Digg to be far and away the best social voting destination based on its current competition. However all competition is good and I do encourage others to try and use other sites; it’s the best way of keeping Digg honest in the future.
Update: I’ve just noticed Allen Stern is hot on Propeller. Read here.
See all
Post
LOL:
The first post on Mixx was BURIED on Digg just before reaching the homepage, at the present it has about 60 diggs…
http://digg.com/tech_news/Digg.....Techcrunch
Have a feeling THIS post won’t be buried.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes to make the homepage, and if it gets several thousand Diggs.
The Top 5 comments are sometime more interesting to read with iPhone
+ their super cool app makes it all highly usable. So digg FTW!
I agree, props on the Digg iPhone app. More sites should follow in their and Facebook’s footsteps in that area.
*COUGH* TC *COUGH*
Jesse
tell me about it: TC on my iPhone
Even though it’s leading now, doesn’t mean it will forever. Digg sucks. It’s depressing.
As much as I’d like to see Digg knocked around a bit, Mixx should not be getting this much attention. The reason - 0% innovation. At least Digg came up with a new algorithm. The only thing Mixx brings to table is perhaps a better tab layout. Hopefully this is the last we’ll hear about Mixx from TC.
What is going on TC?! This has got to be one of the most incredibly misguided posts I’ve read.
Content - unique? diverse? are you kidding?
Go to Digg right now and check the front page. I guarantee at least one story about Bush, Ron Paul, Ubuntu, or Apple at any given point in time. That’s not prevalence, it’s domination.
Did you already forget what happened to Digg during the iPhone launch?
If you think that being on the front page has anything to do with the “democratic decision making process” then perhaps you should spend more time using Digg, watching Digg Spy, or chatting up supernova17[top digger].
Honestly, wtf. Do you think Techcrunch gets on the front page of Digg because High school/college aged males like to read about startups?
Also, you’ve got a typo in the last word in the first paragraph under the “Numbers” heading. Please take the time to proofread so that you can, at least, look like you know what you’re talking about.
There’s certainly room for many competitors in this space, but I do agree with #6 in that startups looking to take on Digg must bring something innovative to this space. Simply cloning Digg is not the most effective path to profitability or sustainability. I think the big winners here will be the ones that can mobilize the mainstream audience and get them to embrace social voting. Non techies can get it too — its not impossible.
Shafqat
http://www.newscred.com
Interesting read. Thats all I can say.
The thing I loathe most about Digg is it’s current system of voting. Hundreds of links are submitted every hour, and the selection for the homepage is made so very often by the sheer size of submitter’s social network (fans, friends).
If one of the top link posters with a huge following sens a shout to his/her 300+ network it WILL get the link to the first page, no matter how interesting it is. People digg it even if they don’t read the article they just dugg, just to have a chance to a returned favor when they submit a link. Hence - less quality content reaches homepage.
And in my opinion, this trend will slowly bury Digg. Pun intended.
Ah, and between Digg, Reddit and Mixx, I prefer Fark.com
If you can’t make it new, make it better. Congrats to Mixx on all the attention.
Adrian - totally agree. I can see why votes are weighted, but it just seems to be deviating away from the ‘democratic’ model that Digg strive to be. Perhaps the algorithm needs to be tweaked so each vote counts the same, and votes by fans/friends are weighted DOWN to dampen the effect of huge networks.
Disclosure: I am particularly passionate about these issues because I’m cofounder of NewsCred, a soon-to-launch digital newspaper, and we’re trying to solve some of the issues that you and the other commenters have mentioned here.
“Content is something that benefits from a bigger user base” - I completely disagree with this assumption. Digg is actually the PROOF that this statement is false. A huge user base, and you mostly get old news, Apple and Linux fan articles and stupid videos.
The single user might be smart. The mob, such as in Digg, is a stupid beast. Many “editors” are not that much better than one.
Duncan, There is a typo in the post. In the following lines:
Digg is still the most popular social networking site when compared to three competitors: Reddit, Propeller and Maxx.
Maxx? shouldn’t that be Mixx?
agree with 13. When a site like Digg goes mainstream, the content that bubble to the top is inevitably the lowest common denominator - sensationalism, media for short attention spans, and softcore porn.
Two words: “Network Effect”.
Cheers,
Aidan
http://www.MappingTheWeb.com
What about StumbleUpon? For me, Digg is still king in its class, but StumbleUpon is a close second.
Yeah, I agree w/ 13. and 15.
“If it has two votes, should it be on top? It wouldn’t be on Digg.”
The nice thing about Propeller is that the staff can fast track a story to the homepage, so if a story breaks, your more likely to see it on the front page the fastest at propeller. The second thing is that new users have a chance of getting on the homepage if they submit a good story. The other thing I like at Propeller is that the staff close duplicate stories while at Digg it’s common for me to submit a story a story only to be dupped and it hit the homepage. I think Propeller is the place to be, especially now with Digg’s shout feature which is turning into a spam fest.
The single biggest problem with Digg is it’s majority of teenage male audience.
As someone has already mentioned, unless you’re interested in Ron Paul, Ubuntu, Xbox, Apple or swimsuits then you’re not likely to get much from the site.
What people dont seem to understand is that digg is not a technology site. It’s a cultural phenomenon that stems down from kevin rose himself. If you really want to beat digg at its own game, pick a nieche, get a mascot (human) work it, and eventuall expand.
I can be my life that Mixx will never reach the prominence of digg, even if they have superior technology.
Popular Photo’s ??
Popular Videos ??
Popular Stories ??
WTF are these people thinking, they are only segmenting the auditinence. There should be 1 list with stories MIXED in them from different categories.
Simplicity is the key here.
In fact, i would argue that techcrunch SHOULD definetly get into this space, it would only be an extension of your service anyway.
I hate Micheal Arrington with a passion, which is why i would probably use the service (weird eh), but you can play off any emotion to get the service up and running.
Thoughts?
Does anyone have a list of their favorite Digg Like Sites, I’d like to review them.
Forget Digg and Mixx. Get your news without the liberal filter…
Conservative Pulse is the only site out there!
http://www.conservativepulse.com
Just wait until we release our “cloud” component Ziggx!
Digg is a nice website for entertainment purposes. However, for real news content we are forced to go elsewhere. They’re readership is simply not diverse enough. Therefore, there is an oligarchy of opinion. Not to mention the editorial content that passes off as “news.” Digg is great, but I don’t read it because I do not share it’s political views. Something has to be done about this before it is taken seriously by a mass audience.
Guys. everyone knows you guys are tight with kevin rose and their crew but we really dont need a digg related article every other day.
Well, Digg still have huge amount of traffic on their site but I find it most annoying that there are simple too high expectations on the articles being submitted on their site.
Furthermore, if you get too many ‘bury’ from voters, your site gets banned! and there are alliances between some top diggers to digg their articles which I think is pretty unfair..
Overall experience is bad on Digg. It is still one of my favorite sites for content discovery but the system/algorithm is hijacked by a bunch of people. Unless everybody is weighed the same, Digg will keep newcomers away.
techmine: I totally agree with you. Now I don’t think that Digg is worth $200 million as reported.. What could possible the company do/wat are their potential?
yeah, I have to agree to some degree with 13. I think Digg is oftentimes plagued with sensationalist topics…making it interesting for quirky news headlines (especially about tech issues). But not a really useful daily site for me to visit. I wish it were otherwise!
Another one to watch that in my opinion is better than Mixx is http://www.tagsum.com . It’s been receiving great reviews, has more traffic than mixx, and is always adding new features. They also offer revenue share to reward the users.
Digg rocks. New content that is fresh, relavent to my interests and helps drive new traffic to my blog of people who are actually interested. A few tweaks would make it rock my world, but still a very good platform!
http://www.tekbite.com/2007/11.....blems.html
Digg will still be no1 for a long long time.Mixx has a lot of to work to reach that level.
Digg is where it is today because it is the first mover in a new space. Up until a few months ago when a slew of new changes were introduced, Digg was shall we say, a fairly simplistic web 1.0 site. Even now with the new changes, taxonomy is still a big freaking mess.
cqkgjytmwg cqkgjytmwg cqkgjytmwgcqkgjytmwg
cqkgjytmwgcqkgjytmwgcqkgjytmwg cqkgjytmwg
Sadly I am not working full time for my site. I thought to write something about Digg.com and Mixx.com yesterday, but just can’t write it as fast as TechCrunch can.
If you guys still interested, I wrote Digg.com vs Mixx.com:
http://digg.com/tech_news/Digg....._is_better
TechCrunch rocks, anyway.
Digg as many other bookmarking sites is turning more and more into a free media to promote useless sites and get free back links. That is why content quality is so low at times…
While Digg had first-mover advantage and the added bonus of the TechTV following, it’s been slow to acknowledge and respond to some of the flaws they’ve introduced in subsequent updates. The underlying technology isn’t really all that advanced or hard to replicate … it’s just eyeballs that any potential buyer would be investing in.
Where Digg suffers is that aside from the top-10 list, and a site like Reddit succeeds is that aside from Digg’s Top 10 list, valuable content tends to fall off the top of the list very quickly and some truly newsworthy world-impacting content can get buried to page 2 or 3 very quickly only to be replaced by a top-10 list about why popcorn tastes great, or something equally mundane. Reddit’s algorithm to keep content towards the top seems to be a smarter approach.
It also seems that Digg hasn’t leveraged the power of people’s networks to provide customzied content, and the associations between you and your “friends” or “fans” is a very flat one unless there’s some intelligence added to really interpret likes and dislikes across your network of connections and use that information to vary what content is served down the road. It doesn’t seem like Digg is doing any of that right now. Alas, it’s a great site … and there’s a lot of promise …. but they’re leaving themselves open to potential competitors by being slow to use the valuable data they’ve compiled on how their users use the site.
Dave
http://www.haha.com
I do agree with Duncan that Digg is still the best for variety and simplicity. Most of the time good stories do feature on the home page. because of its popularity, 1000s of spams circulate in the upcoming section and sorting through the spam, finding a good story and than reading the story in the source site before voting on it is time consuming. The shout feature in Digg enables diggers to engage in “scratch my back and i will scratch your back”.After a story picks a little momentum, lots of votes are just crowd following- people voting on it without reading the story. For lots of diggers, digg is amusement, a game. Good stuff
As soon as Digg went mainstream, it started sliding downhill fast. It’s the very nature of something that is aimed at broad appeal. Think bell curve.
I like digg best. I am sure many people have the same opinion as me because I often hear that members at pozgroup.com talking about digg. Some of them even planning to create a special blog there to discuss about digg.
I never understood the fascination people have with Digg. For your tech nerd moments you are much better off visiting slashdot, techmeme or even reading some wikipedia articles.
The Digg links and articles are 90% of the time weak, kiddie stuff. I have read only 1 or 2 truly interesting articles through Digg.
Popdup.com is a new social media / bookmarking website for video,news,pictures and shopping.. You guys can connect,share your favorites on the web..
Its really funny…
YOu can create groups to organize same kinda buddies and bookmarks..
Build your own customized page , and share it with your friends…
http://www.popdup.com