Just Search Blog
Just Search Blog
Digg is essentially a user-driven news website resource. The users of the site can be thought of as researchers, who find useful articles and news stories from all over the web and then submit them to Digg. These news articles can then be read by other users who in turn submit new stories that they have discovered and deemed useful.
At its heart Digg is a democratic approach to a news website where all the users are editors. Once an article or post from a site has been submitted to Digg, it waits in a queue where review users can view it and decide whether they like the submission or not. If they like it then they select the ‘Digg it’ button. If it is liked by enough reviewers it makes its way to the Digg home page.
Digg was originally founded in 2004, and has become popular over the years. The new version of Digg, released this week, provides us with new facilities in keeping up to date with the latest technologies, by entering into social media and attempting to take advantage of all that this market has to offer.
What are the new changes that it has made?
The new Digg has seen the largest update by the site since its launch and is now up to Version 4. So, what are the new updates?
According to Digg’s founder, Kevin Rose, this is just the beginning of a multitude of changes to come.
Why do we think Digg has made these changes?
The web is moving fast and has evolved considerably within the last year. To keep up with this, Digg saw the need to change their vision and direction to keep up with the needs of its users.
Rose mentioned in an interview:
“We’re making some drastic changes, but they’re much-needed drastic changes,” he told The Telegraph. “People are going to be shocked at some of the directions we’re taking.”
Ultimately this was to embrace real-time web, as most Digg users will be familiar with the style of Twitter and Facebook (already well received).
Conclusion
With this new look and the move towards a more social feel, similar to Twitter, it seems that Digg is doing what a lot of other sites are doing and trying to get a piece of the social media market. Many sites seem to be copying the facilities of other already successful sites in the social media arena. This is not a new philosophy in the world of the Internet. There are other examples that I will delve into below:
Google has, over the last month, spent something in the region of $200 million on companies that have brought us the best social network games out there. These purchases however are not in a bid to bring you something that is new-fangled, but instead to provide something that brings friends and social networks together. For me this is exactly what Facebook do now, but Google are keeping their cards very close to their chest about the new Google ME Social network.
Facebook has only recently released a new feature for its already vast empire. This feature lets you tell friends where you are by signing in to a location on your phone. Basically, if you went to say Starbucks in Manchester then you can use your phone to announce that you are there and then all your friends will know where you are and they can meet you if they are nearby. This new feature is going to be called ‘Places’.
Funny thing is that this has already been done before and if I am not mistaken is very successful. The company who already do this is called FourSquare. They already perform this social media feature very well and over 4 million people use FourSquare worldwide.
Overall
Using social tools like this can be a brilliant way to enhance and promote your website to others. If you look at all the big brands, they will always have a social media aspect to their internet marketing, as it helps to generate more traffic to a site.
Authors: Gemma Neesham, Ahmed Bhula and David Stopher.
Web Design, Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for the UK and World
Very nicely done article. With Google acquiring just about any search related sites – and also taking some lessons out of social media such as digg, facebook and twitter – we are at the crossroads.
It is not yet sure which way the web will move within next couple of years !
Will people be more social network based to know about products and services or will Google be able to integrate its basic search with more duplicate social networking features?
With people getting more net savvy and avoiding clicking un-necessary Google ads – only future will tell.
Cheers