The social news sharing site Digg is about to undergo a major overhaul that will shock users according to the founder of Digg.
“We’re making some drastic changes, but they’re much-needed drastic changes,” said Kevin Rose, Digg’s founder, in the UK’s Telegraph.
“People are going to be shocked at some of the directions we’re taking. You have to be comfortable with completely tearing down and throwing away a bunch of ideas” he said.
Now if something isn’t broken, you don’t try to fix it right, so why are Digg, who attract over 35 million unique viewers a month, willing to take what surely amounts to a huge risk by drastically altering what already works pretty well?
I mean will we even recognise Digg after its makeover?
“When you see the new design, you’re going to go, ‘Wow, this is not the same site’” said Rose.
From what we can gather, it is all about keeping up with the times, so apart from cosmetic changes, the re-design will incorporate more ‘real time’ information that can be pulled in from elsewhere on the web.
“It will really be more about what people within one or two degrees of separation are up to – what they’re consuming and enjoying,” said Rose.
Ah now it’s beginning to make some sense.
For those who aren’t familiar with Digg, it’s a social news website covering every topic imaginable, where users can submit links and content they find interesting which other users can then ‘Digg’ or ‘Bury’ depending on how much they like them.
Stories that get the most digs are basically dug out of the massive pile of content submitted daily, to reach the front page.
“We’ve realised there’s so much more happening around the web – people are ‘touching’ pieces of content that they care about, and sharing it with their friends. We want to embrace all these different channels – Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, email – in which people are touching content.
“In the next version of Digg you’ll see stories being presented to you in a more real-time nature, especially stories that your friends have touched. It will not be just about Digg.com, but also embracing all the content that your friends touch on other websites.
“It’s about being that place where people say, ‘I’m going to take a look at Digg because it provides me insight into what’s trending, what’s popular, what’s hot from all over these different places where people exchange information’.”
Hey I’m looking forward to this.
