Digg to allow users to vote for many types of news
on washingtonpost.com
by Eric Auchard, June 22, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Digg.com, a tech-news phenomenon that has readers recommend online articles to others, is expanding to let users also vote for the most popular general news, entertainment stories or videos, the company said on Thursday.
Challenging a long-held journalistic assumption that editors know best what people want to read, the 18-month-old San Francisco start-up has surged to become one of the most widely read sources of technology news on the Web.
The site (digg.com/) ranks as the third-most-visited U.S. site dedicated to technology news, up from No. 8 late last year, according to Web traffic firm Hitwise. Digg has 304,000 registered users, but attracted 8.5 million visitors in May, indicating many just watch for what news junkies consider hot.
The upgraded Digg.com, due out on Monday, threatens to further disrupt a professional news industry already reeling from the fragmentation of mass-market audiences, the rise of self-published blogs and rapid changes that have reshaped the advertising markets on which publishers have long depended.
“The point of Digg is to capture the interests of the Internet masses and use that interest to help organize the huge amounts of information on the Web,” Digg Chief Executive Jay Adelson said in an interview. “This makes it more convenient and, frankly, faster to find relevant information.”
The more readers who “ig,” or vote for, a story the farther it rises up the rankings of the free site. While superficially similar to the computer formula-driven page-ranking system of Web search leader Google Inc., Digg allows a wider, human audience to determine what’s news.
The rise of Digg marks the growing maturation of online news audiences who, while alert to the danger of hoaxes and sloppy reporting, also now demand not only a say in what they deem relevant but a shot at deciding what is front page news.
“You are paying attention to what other people are paying attention (to),” Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li said. “It’s not the technology on Digg, it’s the community that is really hard for others to duplicate.”
Last week, Internet giant AOL launched a trial version of its Netscape site (www.beta.netscape.com/) to compete with Digg, blending audience voting with online news editors.
Bloggers and technology journalists from sites such as ZDNet and MarketWatch have begun featuring “ig it” links at the bottom of stories to promote them to a wider readership.
Li said Digg may also hold promise as an e-commerce product rating system.
Online videos on YouTube, MySpace, Google Video or Yahoo Video will be the first of a variety of non-news categories that Digg officials said they plan to allow users to vote on. The site will add a sports category shortly.
by Eric Auchard, June 22, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Digg.com, a tech-news phenomenon that has readers recommend online articles to others, is expanding to let users also vote for the most popular general news, entertainment stories or videos, the company said on Thursday.
Challenging a long-held journalistic assumption that editors know best what people want to read, the 18-month-old San Francisco start-up has surged to become one of the most widely read sources of technology news on the Web.
The site (digg.com/) ranks as the third-most-visited U.S. site dedicated to technology news, up from No. 8 late last year, according to Web traffic firm Hitwise. Digg has 304,000 registered users, but attracted 8.5 million visitors in May, indicating many just watch for what news junkies consider hot.
The upgraded Digg.com, due out on Monday, threatens to further disrupt a professional news industry already reeling from the fragmentation of mass-market audiences, the rise of self-published blogs and rapid changes that have reshaped the advertising markets on which publishers have long depended.
“The point of Digg is to capture the interests of the Internet masses and use that interest to help organize the huge amounts of information on the Web,” Digg Chief Executive Jay Adelson said in an interview. “This makes it more convenient and, frankly, faster to find relevant information.”
The more readers who “ig,” or vote for, a story the farther it rises up the rankings of the free site. While superficially similar to the computer formula-driven page-ranking system of Web search leader Google Inc., Digg allows a wider, human audience to determine what’s news.
The rise of Digg marks the growing maturation of online news audiences who, while alert to the danger of hoaxes and sloppy reporting, also now demand not only a say in what they deem relevant but a shot at deciding what is front page news.
“You are paying attention to what other people are paying attention (to),” Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li said. “It’s not the technology on Digg, it’s the community that is really hard for others to duplicate.”
Last week, Internet giant AOL launched a trial version of its Netscape site (www.beta.netscape.com/) to compete with Digg, blending audience voting with online news editors.
Bloggers and technology journalists from sites such as ZDNet and MarketWatch have begun featuring “ig it” links at the bottom of stories to promote them to a wider readership.
Li said Digg may also hold promise as an e-commerce product rating system.
Online videos on YouTube, MySpace, Google Video or Yahoo Video will be the first of a variety of non-news categories that Digg officials said they plan to allow users to vote on. The site will add a sports category shortly.
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