Is the New Digg on the Road to Recovery?
For the past week, the online world has been buzzing about the latest installment of the Digg interface. The new Digg, Digg v4, has been hailed by many as the biggest failure that Kevin Rose has yet to create.
The public backlash has been horrific for the new Digg. Hordes of Digg users have been migrating to sites like Reddit and Mixx and the top news portion of Digg’s website was being slammed with direct links to Digg’s competitors like Reddit.
For the first several days after the official launch of the new Digg, users had been met with nonstop server errors presented with comical images and quotes. After two months of beta testing, the Digg team had massively underestimated the resources that the new system would require with the full traffic load.
Is the New Digg really on the Road to Recovery?
…Or has the new Digg destroyed the empire of Kevin Rose?
But the good folks over at Digg have been working hard. Kevin Rose and his army of cohorts have been toiling nonstop to make amends for their tragic launch. They’ve fixed the ‘front-page’ algorithm. They’ve re-added timestamps to the articles in the top news section. Perhaps best of all, the errors that were so harshly slapping us all in the face are now fading as a distant memory.
The new Digg is shaping up and users are starting to find their way around. In fact, I’m starting to enjoy it so much that I’d like to invite you to follow me on the new Digg.
What will the future hold for the new Digg?
If you look throughout the interwebs, you’re going to find conflicting opinions about the future of this new system. Some believe that it has great potential while others think that the site has crossed the point of no return.
Consider the questions below and then join me in the comments section as we discuss the future of the new Digg and what it could mean for us as bloggers.
- Will the new Digg make a full recovery and continue to see the growth that they had enjoyed previously or will they continue to wallow in the backlash of an upgrade fail of epic proportions?
- Has the Digg team created a flawed system so dramatic that they’ll never recover or is this a strategic business move that will position them for even greater growth by attracting a new, more vibrant audience?
Suzanne Vara said:
Nick,
No I to not believe that they created a system so flawed. I think that they created a system that they could build upon but also the users could too. They were in tune with the bloggers of today who are not rockstars with 10K visitors a day. They want to attract the up and comers and have them become influential. Digg is about influence and the influence was shifted to the leaders who created followers but now it is about the followers being able to expand and create a network.
Suz
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Nicholas Cardot said:
I agree with you. Other than the intermittent server errors that they experienced in the beginning and a few other interface flaws that they’ve already demonstrated that they’re working on fixing, I think that the new interface is an exciting new approach to the world of Digg. The new Digg is here to stay and I personally believe that it’s going to enhance they’re ability to continue growing. People are just afraid of change.
Stephen said:
Hi Nicholas,
I am a big fan of the new Digg. I know there has been a massive backlash from a lot of the major players on Digg, but I think it will recover from that, and attract many more (new) users who may actually stand a chance of generating some traffic.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
I was actually on Reddit much more heavily than I was on Digg until I started reading tons of reddits about the new Digg. I came over and had to deal with the server errors that kept occurring but once I got past all of that I deleted my account last night and created a new account that would more accurately reflect my goals on this new platform and so far, I am absolutely loving it.
I agree with you about generating traffic. I think they’ve created a hybrid system by incorporating some of the best qualities from the Twitter follow system into their platform.
Do you foresee yourself using the new Digg system more or less than the old one? What is your favorite new feature?
Stephen said:
I can see myself using the new Digg much more than the old Digg, but I didn’t use the old Digg very much at all. I would occasionally visit to find interesting stories, but never enjoyed much traffic.
The feature I like most is the ability to automatically add posts through RSS feeds. The new design is quite nice too!
What about you? What is your favourite feature?
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Nicholas Cardot said:
There are several things that I really like.
The new follow system.
The auto RSS feed.
The profile links are now directly after the domain name
I also really like how the profile page looks. I enjoy how it displays the links, stats and recent activity.
Gabriele Maidecchi said:
I have to admit I never used Digg before so I can’t speak of differences between old and new Digg.
What I can say though is that I signed up and became a “new user” exactly ’cause they renewed it and I was tempted to at least try it out.
I am guessing I am not the only one who did this so, for sure, they got a healthy amount of new users at the very least.
Nicholas Cardot said:
I actually deleted my old account and created a new account to start fresh with a new strategy for the new Digg. I’m enjoying it so far.
Tom said:
Do yourself a favor and check out Reddit. It has a much better community and is still user driven.
Onibalusi Bamidele said:
Really great post Nick,
I am presently loving the new digg because of its speed and design but it isn’t as good as the former one. I remember each one of my submissions getting digged more than 10 times on the former digg but on this one I am the only one who diggs my submission.
They still have a lot to do
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Brian Rogel said:
This is definitely an interesting debate. To be honest I like the New Digg slightly better then I did the previous version. The problem is I hit an error message on roughly 40% of my clicks through the website.
Let’s face it, people absolutely hate waiting in general and even more so when it comes to websites. Digg has enough support to turn it all around, but they need to start making large improvements and they need to do it very soon.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
I’ve been experiencing the same issue but hopefully that is just a temporary setback.
Derek Jensen said:
I believe that the new Digg with more focus on publishers will strive for bloggers and others writing content to be another top publisher. It’s really anyones game.
I’ve always believed in the ways of Digg because it truly does allow for publishers, advertisers, and readers to see what content is attractive.
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Blog Angel a.k.a. Joella said:
Personally, I hate to see anyone fail. But the new Digg really was an atrocious mess – at first.
I’m glad they are on the road to recovery and I shall have to try it all again I suppose. Perhaps it was worth the wait and the rocky start after all.
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Tony Hue said:
I believe…in Reddit.
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ashley sarah said:
new digg is best for its users, its so easy now.
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Hieu Martin@Blog Tips said:
I love new digg design. its easy to use. but this time i cant use digg button add to my blog. thats not good
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Jasmine Henry from J Station X said:
I don’t mind the new Digg too much and I think that the team will be able to make imporvements according to our ideas and I recently took a survey from Digg asking for user opinions which shows that they want to make changes for the better.