Have you seen the new Digg.com? It not only spots a new interface but has also added multitudes of new functionalities. The new Digg offers its users a much-more fulfilling experience by making the business of sharing news very easy and straight-forward.
Digg was the place to watch for the trending news from across the world, up until a few years ago. Digg was built on the very concept of trends. Users find a compelling story worth sharing, and then “digg it”. In a short span of time, the most popular diggs are aggregated on the homepage of digg.com with some classified into specific categories like Technology, Politics, Sports etc.
I have watched Digg decline in popularity over the years as Facebook and Twitter ate into its turf. Whilst it took a geek to even know about Digg.com, Facebook and Twitter are much more mainstream. The fate of Digg seemed to have been sealed for good when buttons appeared for Facebook and Twitter that gave an idea of a story’s popularity by counting the number of times the story had been “liked” on Facebook or tweeted on Twitter. Though Digg.com brought the concept of counter buttons to the fore, the duo of Facebook and Twitter made it wildly popular among bloggers and other online publishers.
Over time, Digg.com had become so unpopular that a lot of bloggers and new websites had removed the Digg buttons and replaced them with… you guessed right.. Facebook and Twitter buttons.
However, Digg is not dead – not yet. The development team have been quietly busy re-alligning the focus of their news sharing website, in a bid to make it more relevant in today’s fast-paced social networking world. The new Digg.com makes sharing a pleasure. There are less hurdles to cross when sharing and even sign-up is simple since one could choose to sign-up using one’s Facebook or Twitter login credentials.
The new Digg looks like a fusion between Facebook and Twitter. It now places emphasis on the concept of “followers” just like Twitter, and prominently displays the Digg users’ bio data on the top-right corner of the website.
Information sharing just got personal again. Digg now spots a new tab that filters out the noise and displays stories from only people you follow.
Now might be a good time to give Digg another chance and return those Digg buttons to your blog or news website.
