OR EMAILThe New Digg: Meh
Digg just added a reported 50 new features, largely describe-able as social networking - Digg style.
Random thoughts:
- Not sure why the green topic bars disappear when you’re looking at your profile pages.
- When I go into the profile pages, it feels like I’m in a different site - almost like a “sub digg”.
- One thing I don’t exactly understand is how not too long ago, Digg was supposedly cracking down on “gaming” or people digging up stories just based on what their friends were digging. But this social network aspect seems to encourage this behavior.
This move by Digg basically reiterates a thought I had earlier this week while checking out Yahoo! Mash: say you have a “social news” Web 2.0 site. You have lots of users. What do you do to keep the “innovation” rolling? The most obvious idea is to emphasize those user profiles - leverage that data and try to make the profiles more “social” - basically slap a social networking site (like Facebook, MySpace, Spock, Mash, etc.) on top of your social news site.
The problem with this idea is it’s so freaking obvious it’s not interesting in the least. You’ll be hard pressed to take on Facebook at this point. And it just furthers the issue I have with social networking fatigue - Digg is creating yet another profile that requires time and energy to maintain and cultivate.
I don’t have time for this stuff. I’ve pretty much stopped using Digg. My two cents is that in order to get me to use it again, it’s going to take something more unique than just adding social networking features.
But the idea of a “recommnedation feature” that offers up stories - and possibly even other users - that are similar to what you’ve dugg in the past is an excellent idea. More of that, please. I’d love to fire up the customized Digg page and see nothing but links to Apple, Battlestar Galactica, and LOLcats stories.
But until then, I don’t see these new Digg features as any better or worse than Yahoo! Mash.
Additional Reading: Techipedia, Constant Observer
Disclosure: I own a tiny amount of Apple stock.
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Categories: Technology :: Tags: Digg, Facebook, Mash, MySpace, Social Network, Spock, Yahoo! ::
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“Digg is creating yet another profile that requires time and energy to maintain and cultivate.”
So true. Instead of making our lives simpler, we are inundated with features that already exist in other social networks. I think it’s pointless.
But you might find the newest Drill Down podcast (which we recorded tonight) interesting when it is made live. We had an interesting debate.
Sounds like a plan - I enjoy spirited debates!
[...] lot is being being made of the encroaching social network fatigue. Just about everyone in the tech blogging world is starting to feel the effects of it and the [...]
I hear you on the fatigue Jase. I stopped using digg a while ago and I only really glanced at the new digg profiles. When I’m not working on my own site, I’ll hit reddit (for some reason I like it better than digg). I’ve even gone back to slashdot, having been “digged-out”. Weird, huh?
As for Mash, I appreciate your invite. I feel badly though, I went to the site and just kinda felt the whole social networking malaise and haven’t really been back. Doing a profile is just too much work.
Of course, if digg can create a better experience for its existing cored of users, even that might be worthwhile.
My main problem with profiles like the digg one is that it’s so data-heavy. Facebook is brilliant b/c of the engagement/interaction component. I think that’s where the profile and social networking gets more interesting with games, poking, virtual gifts and the like.
Interesting comparison between Digg and Yahoo! Mash. I got a Mash invite sitting in my Inbox that I still have to respond to (well, at least it wasn’t another Quechup “invite.” ) And, yeah–another social networking thingamabob to keep up with. yikes!
(BTW, I owe you a comment on your Valley of the Dolls post…just been a bit busy
)