One common complaint about Digg is that you have to visit the site to actually digg anything. Well, unless you use the Digg toolbar, which caused a bit of controversy when it launched last year. But last month, Digg announced a new API that made it so developers could finally create apps that would allow for the digging of items outside of Digg.com. And today, the service is eating its own dogfood by releasing two such applications: an updated extension for Firefox, and a brand new extension for Chrome.
Both extensions now not only show you a Digg count when you’re browsing a story that has been submitted to the service, but, when authorized, they allow you to digg that story right from the overlay drop-down the extension creates when clicked on in the toolbar. Both are fast and simple — especially the Chrome one.
And you can also easily share the content you are browsing on Twitter or Facebook with a click in this drop-down. The link shared is a Digg-shortened URL that includes the DiggBar if you’re signed in and using it. You can also email any story with one click or submit it to Digg if the story hasn’t already been.
The Firefox extension continues to offer a bit more functionality, including the ability to see what your friends on the service are digging. But they’ve made the resulting pop-ups less intrusive. And they’ve also made the extension toolbar itself shorter.
It’s good to see Digg actively promoting this use of the service outside of its main domain even though that won’t help bolster its stagnating traffic. But as we’ve seen with Twitter, even though a website may have stagnating traffic, use of the service through its APIs can still be on the up and up, which is important. And that’s what this new Digg API is all about.