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25 Oct 2010 21:14

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Tech: Digg realizes that too many people are working for them

  • six the number of people who work on Reddit’s entire site
  • 67 the number of people who work on Digg at the moment
  • 25 the number of staffers Digg will be cutting to get profitable source
  • » Cutting the “overhead”: Why is it that Reddit has a much smaller staff, yet is completely kicking Digg’s butt at the moment? Good question. Either way, Digg (which is unprofitable) is cutting 37 percent of its staff in an effort to rebuild lost momentum in the platform and cut significant costs. “It’s been an incredibly tough decision,” wrote Matt Williams, the company’s brand-new CEO. “I wish it weren’t necessary. However, I know it’s the right choice for Digg’s future success as a business.” Also, a product refocus is coming very soon to correct the last one.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Oct 2010 10:32

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Tech: Do people simply tire of social sites like Digg, just like TV shows?

  • Starting a company like Digg is less like building a traditional tech company (think Apple or HP) and more like launching a TV show. And perhaps, like TV shows, these companies are ephemeral in nature. People flock in for a while, then get bored and move on.
  • Newsweek scribe Daniel Lyons • Offering an interesting perspective on the decline of Digg, which he suggests may have been as much about the change of its audience as a failure of Digg to keep up. The TV show metaphor is actually a very good one. While not every company will fall prey to changing seasons, Web 2.0 companies are particularly apt to them due to their socially-oriented business models. Lyons suggestion at the end is most telling: “The big lesson of Digg may be simply this: if someone offers you a ridiculous amount of money for a company that wasn’t that hard to build, don’t think twice. Take the money and run.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2010 01:35

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Tech: Digg dropout? Kevin Rose no longer sounds enthused about his baby

  • 2004Kevin Rose founds Digg, parlaying his minor TV fame into a major trendsetting social news Web site.
  • 2008 Rose reportedly  pushes very hard to sell his product to Google, but his own board turns the offer down.
  • 2010 Rose is reportedly burnt out, and rumors suggest that may quit Digg, which has had a very rough year. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Sep 2010 03:04

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Tech: Redesign fail: Digg loses most of its clout almost overnight

  • 24% decline in Digg’s traffic in just 11 weeks (whoa!) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Aug 2010 20:44

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Tech: Digg’s Kevin Rose steps down as CEO, creates speculation bomb

  • As you know, I have been the interim CEO, while we looked for the right person, and I will still remain actively involved in the product, but am handing over the day-to-day running of the business to Matt.
  • Digg founder Kevin Rose • Handing over his role as interim CEO of Digg to Matt Williams. The timing, of course, is what people are going to be focused on. Whether or not Rose is leaving Digg because of the drama around the redesign or because of something else, Digg users are going to understandably focus on the fact that his departure happened at a very important juncture for the company. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Aug 2010 18:43

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Tech: Thoughts on the Digg user revolt currently taking place

  • YES. DIGG SUCKS.
  • But not for the reason you think. It’s not because of its sudden change that it started sucking. It’s because it’s designed to encourage a minority of viewpoints, instead of the democratic thang that it sells itself as. It can be corrupted. It can be influenced. Fact of the matter is, Digg has never been about letting anyone have a voice. It’s structured in a way that makes it difficult for the small fry, whether they’re simply a small blog or an average user, to have any actual influence. At least with this redesign, Digg is being honest about it. The best part? They’ve actually made the site approachable to outsiders rather than the insular thing it had become. Instead of complaining about the changes, learn to accept them. Or go to Reddit. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Aug 2010 23:39

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Tech: Kevin Rose thinks Apple’s going to own the living room with iTV

  • With Apple’s iAds, content producers (eg. ABC/NBC/etc.) can directly monetize and distribute their content. This will eventually destroy the television side of the cable and satellite industry, as your only requirement to access these on-demand stations will be an internet connection. Say goodbye to your monthly cable bill.
  • Kevin “I founded Digg!” Rose • Making a bold prediction about the Apple TV … er, iTV. He claims that the device will disrupt a few industries, most notably cable, and that the iPad will work like a giant remote for the device. He’s got a spotty track record – while he nailed the iPod Nano’s first iteration, he embarrassingly got the iPhone really wrong (which he shouldn’t feel bad about, because a lot of people did). source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink
 

07 Aug 2010 14:53

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Politics: Dear AlterNet: Good job uncovering that Digg conspiracy

  • Digg’s prone to this kinda thingLook, there’s a reason why Digg is last year’s social media model. This, honestly, is why. It’s too easy to influence the results via collusion. And while AlterNet obviously leans left, the level of research into the story definitely leaves no doubt of a massive right-wing conspiracy to influence what gets on the front page of Digg. As they point out, this is actually a scandal, whereas the Journolist thing had the hype of a scandal but wasn’t anywhere near this bad.
  • The influence game Look, we have no real interest in Digg. We think human aggregation is more interesting than thumbs. But we have to say – in the game of influence, there’s a big difference between having an opinion and forcing an agenda. The journalists on Journolist? Their big crime was having an opinion. The guys at DiggPatriot? They forced an agenda and acted like they did nothing wrong. Which one is worse? It seems obvious now, doesn’t it? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

28 May 2010 22:13

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Tech: Kevin Rose’s new Digg: A lot of ingredients in one little feed

  • Kevin Rose just combined Digg with Facebook and Twitter. As you may know, we think that Digg has a relevance problem. It also has an over-influence problem. And a sexism problem. And let’s face it, it’s kind of a pain in the butt to submit articles to. Fortunately for Digg, it has a coming redesign that looks pretty awesome.
  • Fixing the faults Digg had a lot of problems and this update has turned it into a viable source that we might actually use. It’s also way ahead of Twitter and Facebook in the way it handles RSS feeds. (Making it easier for content to gain influence organically, just like Twitter.) The mix of news, friends and tastemakers is kinda brilliant.
  • Reddit’s co-founder just jealousOne of the co-founders of Reddit has posted about it, and has trashed it as a crass move to please venture capitalists, but we completely disagree. And, if we’re being completely frank, Reddit still has these problems and always will as long as it treats content promotion from legitimate sites like spam. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Mar 2010 22:39

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Tech: Mashable’s Pete Cashmore unveils more details on the new Digg

  • Curation, personalization, centralization – Digg wants to be your hub again. For a couple of years, Digg was THE place to go to hear what’s hot, as well as a solid way to drive traffic to your site. Nowadays, it’s a total niche and it’s hard to get your articles noticed in the abyss. Facebook (especially) and Twitter work way better. Mashable’s Pete Cashmore, in his column for CNN, talks a little more about Digg, whose new social buttons his site is testing. It sounds like Digg’s at least trying to get their mojo back. But will it work? Let’s just say we’re excited to see it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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