Digg Explained

Digg, Inc.
Founder:Kevin Rose
Area Served:Worldwide
Location City:New York City, United States
Key People:Michael O'Connor (CEO) [1]
Num Employees:25 (2018)[2]
Programming Language:Python[3]
Registration:Optional
Current Status:Active
Language:English
Advertising:None
Website Type:Social news
Owner:BuySellAds.com, Inc.[4]
Revenue:Unknown

Digg (stylized in lowercase as digg) is an American news aggregator with a curated front page, aiming to select articles specifically for the Internet audience such as science, trending political issues, and viral Internet issues. It was launched in its current form on July 31, 2012, with support for sharing content to other social platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

It formerly had been a popular social news website, allowing people to vote user-generated and web content up or down, called digging and burying, respectively. In 2012, Quantcast estimated Digg's monthly U.S. unique visits at 3.8 million.[5] Digg's popularity prompted the creation of similar sites such as Reddit.[6]

In July 2008, the former company took part in advanced acquisition talks with Google for a reported $200 million price tag, but the deal ultimately fell through. After a controversial 2010 redesign and the departure of co-founders Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose, in July 2012 Digg was sold in three parts: the Digg brand, website, and technology were sold to Betaworks for an estimated $500,000;[7] 15 staff were transferred to The Washington Post Companys "SocialCode" for a reported $12 million; and a suite of patents was sold to LinkedIn for about $4 million.[8] [9] [10]

In April 2018, Digg was purchased by BuySellAds, an advertising company, for an undisclosed amount.[11]

History

Digg started as an experiment in November 2004 by collaborators Kevin Rose, Owen Byrne, Ron Gorodetzky, and Jay Adelson. The original design by Dan Ries was free of advertisements. To monetize, the company originally used Google AdSense but switched to MSN adCenter in 2007.[12]

The site's main function was to let users discover, share and recommend web content. Members of the community could submit a webpage for general consideration. Other members could vote that page up ("digg") or down ("bury"). Although voting took place on digg.com, many websites added "digg" buttons to their pages, allowing users to vote as they browsed the web. The end product was a series of wide-ranging, constantly updated lists of popular and trending content from around the Internet, aggregated by a social network.

Additions and improvements were made throughout the website's first years. Digg v2 was released in July 2005, with a new interface by web design company silverorange. New features included a friends list, and the ability to "digg" a story without being redirected to a success page. One year later, as part of Digg v3, the website added specific categories for technology, science, world and business, videos, entertainment, and gaming, as well as a "view all" section that merged all categories. Further interface adjustments were made in August 2007.

By 2008, Digg's homepage was attracting over 236 million visitors annually, according to a Compete.com survey.[13] Digg had grown large enough that it was thought to affect the traffic of submitted web pages. Some pages experienced a sudden increase in traffic shortly after being submitted; some Digg users refer to this as the "Digg effect".

Redesign

CEO Jay Adelson said in 2010 that the site would go through some major changes. In the interview with Wired magazine, Adelson said that "Every single THING has changed" and that "the entire website has been rewritten."[14] The company changed from MySQL to Cassandra, a distributed database system; in a blog post, VP Engineering John Quinn said that the move was "bold".[15] Adelson summed up the new Digg by saying, "We've got a new backend, a new infrastructure layer, a new services layer, new machines—everything."

Adelson stepped down as CEO on April 5, 2010, to explore entrepreneurial opportunities, months before the launch date of Digg v4.[16] He had been the company's CEO since its inception. Kevin Rose, another original founder, stepped in temporarily as CEO and Chairman.

Digg's v4 release on August 25, 2010, was marred by site-wide bugs and glitches. Digg users reacted with hostile verbal opposition. Beyond the release, Digg faced problems due to so-called "power users" who would manipulate the article recommendation features to only support one another's postings, flooding the site with articles only from these users and making it impossible to have genuine content from non-power users appear on the front page. Frustrations with the system led to dwindling web traffic, exacerbated by heavy competition from Facebook, whose like buttons started to appear on websites next to Digg's.[17] High staff turnover included the departure of head of business development Matt Van Horn, shortly after v4's release.[18]

On September 1, 2010, Matt Williams took over as CEO, ending Rose's troubled tenure as interim chief executive.

In 2013, Andrew McLaughlin took over as CEO after Digg was sold to BetaWorks and re-launched.[19]

In 2015, Gary Liu took over as Digg CEO.[20]

In 2016, Joshua Auerbach took over as interim CEO.[21]

In September 2016, Digg announced that it would begin a data partnership with Gannett. The "seven figure" investment would give Gannett access to real-time trend analysis of Digg's 7.5 million pieces of content.[22]

In 2017, Michael O'Connor took over as CEO, and continues as CEO today.

Sale and relaunch

In July 2012, Digg was sold in three parts:

  1. the Digg brand, website, and technology were sold to Betaworks for $500,000;
  2. 15 staff were transferred to The Washington Posts Code3 project for $12 million;
  3. the patent portfolio was sold to LinkedIn for approximately $4 million.[10]

There were reports that Digg had been trying to sell itself to a larger company since 2006.[23] The most notable attempt took place in July 2008, when Google entered talks to buy Digg for around $200 million. Google walked away from negotiations during the deal's due diligence phase, informing Digg on July 25 that it was no longer interested in the purchase.[24] Digg subsequently accepted further venture capital funding, receiving $28.7 million in September 2008 from investors such as Highland Capital Partners[25] to move headquarters and add staff.[26] Several months later, CEO Jay Adelson said Digg was no longer for sale.[27]

On July 20, 2012, new owners Betaworks announced via Twitter that they were rebuilding Digg from scratch, "turning [Digg] back into a start-up".[28] Betaworks gave the project a six-week deadline. Surveys of existing users, collected through the website ReThinkDigg.com,[29] were used to inform the development of a new user interface and user experience.[30] [31]

The "rethought" Digg reset its version number and launched as Digg v1 a day prior to the Betaworks project deadline, on July 31, 2012. It featured an editorially driven front page, more images, and top, popular and upcoming stories. Users could access a new scoring system. There was increased support for sharing content to other social platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Digg's front page content was selected by editors, instead of users on other communities like Reddit.

Until its sale to BuySellAds.com in 2018, its offices were located at 50 Eldridge Street in New York City's Chinatown.

Features

Digg Reader

See main article: Digg Reader. In response to the announced shutdown of Google Reader, Digg announced on March 14, 2013 that it was working on its own RSS reader.[32] Digg Reader launched on June 28, 2013 as a web and iOS application. An Android app was released on August 29, 2013. Digg announced that it would shut down Digg Reader on March 26, 2018.[33]

Issues relating to former Digg website

Organized promotion and censorship by users

See main article: Digg Patriots. It was possible for users to have disproportionate influence on Digg, either by themselves or in teams. These users were sometimes motivated to promote or bury pages for political or financial reasons.

Serious attempts by users to game the site began in 2006.[34] A top user was banned after agreeing to promote a story for cash to an undercover Digg sting operation.[35] Another group of users openly formed a 'Bury Brigade' to remove "spam" articles about US politician Ron Paul; critics accused the group of attempting to stifle any mention of Ron Paul on Digg.[36]

Digg hired computer scientist Anton Kast to develop a diversity algorithm that would prevent special interest groups from dominating Digg. During a town hall meeting, Digg executives responded to criticism by removing some features that gave superusers extra weight, but declined to make "buries" transparent.[37]

However, later that year Google increased its page rank for Digg. Shortly afterwards, many 'pay for Diggs' startups were created to profit from the opportunity. According to TechCrunch, one top user charged $700 per story, with a $500 bonus if the story reached the front page.[38]

Digg Patriots was a conservative Yahoo! Groups mailing list, with an associated page on coRank, accused of coordinated, politically motivated behavior on Digg. Progressive blogger Ole Ole Olson wrote in August 2010 that Digg Patriots undertook a year-long effort of organized burying of seemingly liberal articles from Digg's Upcoming module. He also accused leading members of vexatiously reporting liberal users for banning (and those who seemed liberal), and creating "sleeper" accounts in the event of administrators banning their accounts. These and other actions would violate Digg's terms of usage.[39] [40] Olson's post was immediately followed by the disbanding and closure of the DiggPatriots list, and an investigation into the matter by Digg.[41]

AACS encryption key controversy

See main article: AACS encryption key controversy.

On May 1, 2007, an article appeared on Digg's homepage that contained the encryption key for the AACS digital rights management protection of HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Then Digg, "acting on the advice of its lawyers", removed posting submissions about the secret number from its database and banned several users for submitting it. The removals were seen by many Digg users as a capitulation to corporate interests and an assault on free speech.[42] A statement by Jay Adelson attributed the article's take-down to an attempt to comply with cease and desist letters from the Advanced Access Content System consortium and cited Digg's Terms of Use as justification for taking down the article.[43] Although some users defended Digg's actions,[44] [45] [46] as a whole the community staged a widespread revolt with numerous articles and comments made using the encryption key.[47] [48] The scope of the user response was so great that one of the Digg users referred to it as a "digital Boston Tea Party".[49] The response was also directly responsible for Digg reversing the policy and stating: "But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you've made it clear. You'd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won't delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be."[50]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Accelent fills CEO position for Digg . 5 April 2017 . 2018-01-13 . 2018-09-21 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180921120602/https://accelentinc.com/accelent_news/accelent-fills-ceo-position-digg/ . live .
  2. Web site: FAQ. Digg.com. 2020-10-19. 2020-10-19. https://web.archive.org/web/20201019003210/https://digg.com/faq. live.
  3. Web site: Jobs. Digg.com. 2016-11-23. https://web.archive.org/web/20181128123547/http://digg.com/jobs. 2018-11-28. dead.
  4. Web site: Digg Inc.: Private Company Information . . 23 September 2018 . 23 September 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180923123911/https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=24526784 . live .
  5. Web site: digg.com – Quantcast Audience Profile . Quantcast.com . July 16, 2012 . July 16, 2012 . June 24, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120624191824/http://www.quantcast.com/digg.com . live .
  6. Web site: Pat . McCarthy . Revisiting Top 10 Web Predictions of 2006 . Conversionrater.com . September 10, 2006 . February 27, 2009 . October 7, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081007082426/http://www.conversionrater.com/index.php/2006/09/10/revisiting-top-10-web-predictions-of-2006 . live .
  7. News: The Big Digg Lesson: A Social Network Is Worth Precisely as Much as Its Community. Madrigal. Alexis C.. The Atlantic. 2018-03-21. en-US. 2018-03-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20180322015203/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/the-big-digg-lesson-a-social-network-is-worth-precisely-as-much-as-its-community/259770/. live.
  8. News: Once a Social Media Star, Digg Sells for $500,000 . The Wall Street Journal . July 13, 2012 . July 16, 2012 . Joseph . Walker . Spencer E. . Ante . December 15, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20141215204009/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304373804577523181002565776 . live .
  9. News: SocialCode hires 15 employees from Digg.com . The Washington Post . May 10, 2012 . July 16, 2012 . Hayley . Tsukayama . May 19, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120519090842/http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/socialcode-hires-15-employees-from-diggcom/2012/05/10/gIQAP2xBFU_story.html . live .
  10. Web site: Digg sale splits the company three ways for $16m total . Slashgear . July 13, 2012 . July 16, 2012 . Chris . Burns . July 15, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120715194903/http://www.slashgear.com/digg-sale-splits-the-company-three-ways-for-16m-total-13238530/ . live .
  11. Web site: The beloved Digg, once the chief rival to Reddit, was just sold to an advertising tech company . Business Insider . 23 September 2018 . April 25, 2018 . 23 September 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180923085609/https://www.businessinsider.com/digg-sells-to-buysellads-an-ad-tech-company-2018-4 . live .
  12. Web site: Digg: New ad provider . July 25, 2007 . July 16, 2012 . Kevin . Rose . July 19, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100719115822/http://about.digg.com/blog/digg-new-ad-provider . live .
  13. Web site: Compete.com . Siteanalytics.compete.com . November 7, 2010 . January 9, 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110109194432/http://siteanalytics.compete.com/digg.com/?metric=uv . live .
  14. News: Wired Interview . Wired . March 15, 2010 . March 15, 2010 . Michael . Calore . March 17, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100317132902/http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/03/digg-redesign-social-web/ . live .
  15. Web site: Cassandra Switch . Digg . July 16, 2012 . John . Quinn . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120307033743/http://about.digg.com/node/564 . March 7, 2012 .
  16. Web site: Update from Jay . Digg . April 4, 2010 . July 16, 2012 . Jay . Adelson . September 20, 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110920090518/http://about.digg.com/blog/update-jay . live .
  17. News: Caroline . McCarthy . Changing the rules of the Digg game . June 21, 2010 . CNET News . July 16, 2012 . July 30, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120730054335/http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20008223-36.html . live .
  18. News: Caroline . McCarthy . Digg's Matt Van Horn leaving for start-up . August 26, 2010 . CNET News . September 2, 2010 . August 27, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100827160052/http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20014852-36.html . live .
  19. Web site: Digg CEO Gary Liu is leaving to head up Alibaba-owned newspaper SCMP – TechCrunch. techcrunch.com. 23 November 2016 . en-US. 2018-03-21. 2018-03-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20180322015144/https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/23/digg-ceo-gary-liu-joining-scmp/. live.
  20. Web site: Digg CEO Gary Liu is leaving to head up Alibaba-owned newspaper SCMP – TechCrunch. techcrunch.com. 23 November 2016 . en-US. 2018-03-26. 2018-03-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20180322015144/https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/23/digg-ceo-gary-liu-joining-scmp/. live.
  21. News: We've Got Some Very Digg News To Share. Auerbach. Joshua. 2018-03-21. en. 2017-06-23. https://web.archive.org/web/20170623132534/http://digg.com/2016/new-year-more-digg. live.
  22. Web site: Alpert. Lukas I.. Gannett Leads Investment Round in Social Media Pioneer Digg. The Wall Street Journal. 11 October 2016. 13 September 2016. 10 October 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161010235442/http://www.wsj.com/articles/gannett-leads-investment-round-in-social-media-pioneer-digg-1473778803. live.
  23. News: Arrington . Michael . Just Sell Digg Already, Jay . Techcrunch.com . November 7, 2007 . February 27, 2009 . March 2, 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090302205611/http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/07/just-sell-digg-already-jay/ . live .
  24. News: Google Walks Away From Digg Deal . washingtonpost.com . February 27, 2009 . Michael . Arrington . July 26, 2008 . October 10, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20121010112405/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/26/AR2008072601421.html . live .
  25. Web site: Digg digs up $28.7 Million . CNNMoney . November 24, 2008 . March 15, 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110708170943/http://techland.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/09/24/digg-digs-up-287-million/ . July 8, 2011 . dead .
  26. Web site: Big News: Expanding & Growing Digg . blog.digg.com . September 24, 2008 . February 27, 2009 . March 15, 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090315001819/http://blog.digg.com/?p=256 . live .
  27. Web site: Digg: Not For Sale . December 9, 2008 . Ante . Spencer E. . December 2008 . December 12, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081212135717/http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2008/tc2008121_004686.htm . dead .
  28. Web site: Rethink Digg Twitter Announcement . July 20, 2012 . July 2012 . April 9, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160409160111/https://twitter.com/digg/status/226356830966784001 . live .
  29. Web site: Rethink Digg . July 20, 2012 . July 21, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120721031358/http://rethinkdigg.com/ . live .
  30. Web site: The New Digg . July 20, 2012 . Chris --> . July 2012 . February 2, 2013 . https://archive.today/20130202194656/http://silicon-news.com/news/2012/07/20/the-new-rethink-digg-review/ . live .
  31. Web site: Rebuilding Digg . July 20, 2012 . Murphey . Samantha . . July 2012 . July 21, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120721053513/http://mashable.com/2012/07/20/digg-rebuild/ . live .
  32. Web site: Digg Reader is Live! . Digg.com . 2013-03-14 . June 28, 2013 . 2013-07-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130703063728/http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/14/4104618/digg-will-build-its-own-version-of-google-reader . live .
  33. Web site: Goodbye to Digg Reader . 2018-03-14 . 2018-03-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180314210133/https://digg.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000678608 . live .
  34. Web site: Digg Corrupted: Editor's Playground, not User-Driven Website . Dave . April 20, 2006 . Forevergeek . August 4, 2010 . July 21, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100721174600/http://www.forevergeek.com/2006/04/digg_corrupted_editors_playground_not_userdriven_website/ . live .
  35. Web site: Digg continues to battle phony stories . Greg . Sandoval . December 18, 2006 . CNET News . August 4, 2010 . May 10, 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110510073035/http://news.cnet.com/Digg-continues-to-battle-phony-stories/2100-1025_3-6144652.html . live .
  36. Web site: Digg's Ron Paul 'Bury Brigade' exposed . Adam . December 23, 2007 . August 4, 2010 . May 14, 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110514082915/http://message2paulspammers.blogspot.com/2007/12/diggs-ron-paul-bury-brigade-exposed.html . live .
  37. Web site: Digg's 20 Questions: a Town Hall Recap . Ben . February 26, 2008 . Bloggingexperiment . August 4, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20101123110643/http://bloggingexperiment.com/archives/diggs-20-questions-a-town-hall-recap.php . November 23, 2010 . dead .
  38. Web site: Want On The Digg Home Page? That'll Be $1,200. . Michael . Arrington . September 3, 2008 . Techcruch . August 4, 2010 . July 22, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100722001039/http://techcrunch.com/2008/09/03/want-on-the-digg-home-page-thatll-be-1300/ . live .
  39. Web site: Massive Censorship of Digg Uncovered « OOO . 2010-08-07 . bot: unknown . https://web.archive.org/web/20130508085136/http://blogs.alternet.org/oleoleolson/2010/08/05/massive-censorship-of-digg-uncovered . May 8, 2013 .
  40. Web site: The Rigging Of Digg: How A Covert Mob Of Conservatives Hijacked The Web's Top Social News Site . Ole Ole . Olson . The Public Record . August 5, 2010 . August 7, 2010 . August 26, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210826103101/https://www.pubrecord.org/ . live .
  41. News: Digg investigates claims of conservative 'censorship' . Josh . Halliday . August 6, 2010 . The Guardian . December 17, 2016 . November 15, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161115235612/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/aug/06/digg-investigates-claims-conservative-censorship . live .
  42. News: Stone . Brad . In Web Uproar, Antipiracy Code Spreads Wildly . . 2007-05-03 . 2007-07-02 . 2008-12-11 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081211105021/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/technology/03code.html . live .
  43. Web site: Digg the Blog: What's Happening with HD-DVD Stories?. Jay. Adelson. 2007-05-02. 2012-10-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20121017103512/http://blog.digg.com/?p=73. live.
  44. Web site: Cease and desist letters backfire horribly against AACS . TGdaily . 2007-05-01 . 2009-02-27 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070504015619/http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/31859/97/ . 2007-05-04 .
  45. Web site: Digg losing control of their site . Weblog.infoworld.com . 2009-02-27 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081222071122/http://weblog.infoworld.com/railsback/archives/2007/05/digg_losing_con.html . 2008-12-22 . dead .
  46. Web site: Sanders . Tom . DRM lobby tries to get HD DVD genie back into the bottle . Computing.co.uk . 2009-02-27 . 2009-02-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090219193526/http://www.computing.co.uk/vnunet/news/2188970/drm-lobby-tries-hd-dvd-genie . live .
  47. Web site: DailyTech: AACS Key Censorship Leads to First Internet Riot. Marcus. Yam. 2007-05-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20070504012441/http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7129. 2007-05-04. dead.
  48. News: BBC News: DVD DRM row sparks user rebellion. 2007-05-02. 2007-05-02. 2007-05-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20070516215800/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6615047.stm. live.
  49. https://web.archive.org/web/20070504173353/http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/05/02/digital-rights-management-tech-cx_ag_0502digg.html Forbes.com
  50. Web site: Digg Redesign Met with a Thumbs Down . Mathew . Ingram . August 26, 2010 . August 29, 2010 . August 28, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100828214002/http://gigaom.com/2010/08/26/digg-redesign-met-with-a-thumbs-down/ . live .
  51. Web site: Digg v4: release, iterate, repeat. . Kevin . Rose . August 27, 2010 . August 27, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100829120320/http://kevinrose.com/blogg/2010/8/27/digg-v4-release-iterate-repeat.html . August 29, 2010 . dead .
  52. Web site: Digg User Rebellion Continues: Reddit Now Rules the Front Page . ReadWriteWeb . Frederic . Lardinois . August 31, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100831122556/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/digg_user_rebellion_reddit_on_front_page.php . August 31, 2010 . dead .
  53. Digg Users Lash Out At New Format, Join Forces with Reddit . . August 31, 2010 . August 30, 2010 . Megan . Friedman . August 30, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100830191918/http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/08/30/digg-users-lash-out-at-new-format-join-forces-with-reddit/ . live .
  54. Web site: Angry Digg users flood home page with Reddit links . https://archive.today/20120713183757/http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20015042-36.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20 . dead . July 13, 2012 . CNet News . Caroline . McCarthy . August 31, 2010 .
  55. News: Angry Users SLAM Digg With Links From Rival Reddit . The Huffington Post . August 31, 2010 . Craig . Kanalley . August 30, 2010 . September 1, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100901170530/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/30/reddit-digg-rivalry-heats_n_699225.html . live .
  56. Web site: Digg's traffic is collapsing at home and abroad . The Next Web . October 20, 2010 . Alex . Wilhelm . 23 September 2010 . September 27, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100927170006/http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/09/23/diggs-traffic-is-collapsing-at-home-and-abroad/ . live .
  57. Web site: The Digg Effect v4 . Social Keith . October 20, 2010 . Keith . Plocek . https://web.archive.org/web/20101022060115/http://socialkeith.com/the-digg-effect-v4/ . October 22, 2010 . dead .
  58. Web site: Interview with Digg founder Kevin Rose . 2010-08-02 . Richard . MacManus . 2006-02-01 . Web 2.0 Explorer . ZDNet . 2010-08-08 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100808221754/http://www.zdnet.com/blog/web2explorer/interview-with-digg-founder-kevin-rose-part-1/108 . live .
  59. Web site: API query for story #01 . 2010-08-02 . API . Digg .
  60. Web site: Kevin Rose shows off Digg on The Screen Savers . 2010-08-02 . The Screen Savers . TechTV . 2021-08-26 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210826103058/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1_YoG7lqI4 . live .
  61. Web site: Digg Podcast #001 Released . 2010-08-02 . Diggnation . Revision3 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100726050927/http://revision3.com/diggnation/2005-07-01 . 2010-07-26 . dead .
  62. Web site: Gaming Digg: the KoolAidGuy saga . 2010-08-02 . Richard . MacManus . 2005-12-27 . Web 2.0 Explorer . ZDNet . 2010-07-17 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100717141843/http://www.zdnet.com/blog/web2explorer/gaming-digg-the-koolaidguy-saga/90 . live .
  63. Web site: Dan Huard is digg user AlbertPacino . https://web.archive.org/web/20080120235857/http://digg.com/tech_news/Dan_Huard_is_digg_user_AlbertPacino . 2008-01-20 . 2010-08-02 . wehatetech .
  64. Web site: Digg Army: Right in Line . 2010-08-02 . Macgyver . 2006-04-19 . Forever Geek . 2010-08-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100814212519/http://www.forevergeek.com/2006/04/digg_army_right_in_line/ . live .
  65. Web site: A couple updates ... . 2010-08-02 . Kevin . Rose . 2007-02-01 . Digg blog . 2010-07-21 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100721192726/http://about.digg.com/blog/couple-updates%E2%80%A6 . live .
  66. Web site: Update on Script Abuse . 2010-08-02 . Jen . Burton . 2008-10-03 . Community blog . Digg . 2010-07-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100719050233/http://about.digg.com/blog/digg-update-script-abuse . live .
  67. Web site: The New Digg Cometh? . 2014-01-30 . 2010-08-03 . Alex . Wilhelm . 2013-10-05 . https://web.archive.org/web/20131005020901/http://thenextweb.com/apps/2010/08/03/the-new-digg-cometh/ . live .
  68. Web site: Michael . Arrington . Digg To Layoff 37% Of Staff, Product Refocus Imminent . Techcrunch.com . 2010-10-25 . 2010-11-07 . 2010-11-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20101106135535/http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/25/digg-to-lay-off-37-percentof-staff/ . live .
  69. Christina Warren, mashable.com. "Kevin Rose Resigns from Digg [Report]". March 18, 2011. Retrieved March 18, 2011.
  70. Web site: Joseph. Walker. Spencer E.. Ante. Once a Social Media Star, Digg Sells for $500,000. The Wall Street Journal. 2012-07-12. 2012-07-13. 2014-12-15. https://web.archive.org/web/20141215204009/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304373804577523181002565776. live.
  71. Web site: Digg This: 09 F9 [...] | access-date =2007-05-02 | first =Kevin | last =Rose | author-link =Kevin Rose | date =2007-05-01 | work =Digg the Blog | publisher =Digg Inc | archive-date =2019-04-22 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20190422090815/https://blog.digg.com/?p=74 | url-status =live }}

    Digg v4

    Digg's version 4 release was initially unstable. The site was unreachable or unstable for weeks after its launch on August 25, 2010. Many users, upon finally reaching the site, complained about the new design and the removal of many features (such as bury, favorites, friends submissions, upcoming pages, subcategories, videos and history search).[50] Kevin Rose replied to complaints on his blog, promising to fix the algorithm and restore some features.[51]

    Alexis Ohanian, founder of rival site Reddit, said in an open letter to Rose:

    Disgruntled users declared a "quit Digg day" on August 30, 2010, and used Digg's own auto-submit feature to fill the front page with content from Reddit.[52] [53] [54] Reddit also temporarily added the Digg shovel to their logo to welcome fleeing Digg users.[55]

    Digg's traffic dropped significantly after the launch of version 4,[56] and publishers reported a drop in direct referrals from stories on Digg's front page.[57] New CEO Matt Williams attempted to address some of the users' concerns in a blog post on October 12, 2010, promising to reinstate many of the features that had been removed.

    Timeline

    Timeline of Digg history! Date !! Event
    October 2004 Development on digg.com begins[58]
    December 1, 2004 Kevin Rose creates the first profile
    December 3, 2004 The first story is submitted to Digg[59]
    December 5, 2004 Digg is open to public
    December 13, 2004 Kevin Rose shows off Digg on The Screen Savers[60]
    January 2, 2005 Comment section introduced for stories
    February 28, 2005 Digg 1.6: duplicate story detection
    March 19, 2005 Profile page now includes comment histories and sort by category
    May 9, 2005 Digg spy is released
    May 27, 2005 Digg 2.0 is released. Friends feature, ajax buttons for Digg/bury, and a non-linear promotion algorithm are implemented.
    July 2, 2005 Diggnation podcast begins with Alex and Kevin[61]
    October 2005 Raises $2.8 million in venture capital
    December 2005 Digg Spy 2.0 released
    December 2005 KoolAidGuy saga results in anti-spam tools being introduced[62]
    January 17, 2006 Top user Albertpacino resigns after accusations of him being on Digg payroll[63]
    January 18, 2006 Digg Clouds is introduced, search is improved
    January 25, 2006 Acquisition rumors begins
    February 2, 2006 Report stories as 'inaccurate' and profanity filters are introduced
    February 15, 2006 Digg widget for blogs and share by email is released
    March 1, 2006 New Digg comment system released, threaded and Diggable comments
    April 20, 2006 Digg Army Saga: after an exposé by forevergeek.com Kevin bans dozens of top users[64]
    June 26, 2006 Digg v3 rolled out, site redesign, shouts, new categories: politics and sports
    July 24, 2006 Digg Labs launches
    August 15, 2006 Thumbnails added
    August 27, 2006 Digg begins enforcing trademark rights
    September 6, 2006 User rebellion against Friends System and vote rigging results in promises about the diversity algorithms and other tools that were never implemented. Top user p9 resigns.
    September 8, 2006 diggriver.com is launched for mobile devices
    September 12, 2006
    1. 1 Story feature added later renamed as favorites
    December 18, 2006 New features: Podcast, Videos, Top 10 sidebar, wide-screen support and friends page
    December 28, 2006 Raises $8.5 million in venture capital
    February 2, 2007 Top Diggers list removed after user complaints[65]
    February 2, 2007 Big Spy launched
    February 26, 2007 The new US elections 2008 section creates much buzz
    March 1, 2007 Blog post leads to concern about 'bury brigades'. Digg investigates and find no evidence for these allegations
    April 19, 2007 Digg API is made public, contest launched for best app using the API
    May 1, 2007 HD-DVD saga regarding the censorship of the leaked encryption key, Kevin yield to users and ends the censorship
    June 4, 2007 Facebook app is launched
    June 21, 2007 New Comment System – Joe Stump edition. Instant backlash from community after slow loading.
    July 10, 2007 iPhone app beta launched
    July 25, 2007 Ad partnership with Microsoft
    August 27, 2007 Customizable homepage options. Images and videos now back to homepage.
    New Digg profiles, story suggestion, email alerts
    November 20, 2007 Digg the Candidates: presidential candidates get their Digg accounts
    February 1, 2008 Digg town halls
    May 15, 2008 New comments system is released
    June 30, 2008 Recommendation engine is released
    July 23, 2008 Facebook minifeeds of Digg stories
    July 31, 2008 m.digg.com – mobile site is released
    August 6, 2008 Firefox extension released
    August 25, 2008 Digg Dialogg
    September 8, 2008 Digg warns users against script for auto digging friends stories.
    September 24, 2008 $28.7 million capital raised with Highland Capital Partners.
    October 3, 2008 A small number of power users are banned after they fail to follow guidelines against script digging.[66]
    October 9, 2008 Digg Spy and podcasts discontinued
    December 18, 2008 Related stories and "People who Dugg this also Dugg" boxes added to individual stories
    April 2, 2009 DiggBar and short url launched
    April 9, 2009 New search
    May 6, 2009 Facebook Connect
    May 26, 2009 Shouts feature is removed
    August 6, 2009 Diggable ads implemented
    October 16, 2009 Partners with WeFollow for categorizing user in the upcoming version 4 release
    November 4, 2009 Digg Trends launched
    January 17, 2010 Chrome extension launched
    March 23, 2010 iPhone app is launched
    April 1, 2010 Android app is launched
    April 5, 2010 Jay Adelson steps down as CEO, Kevin Rose becomes interim CEO
    July 2, 2010 Digg version 4 alpha testing begins
    August 3, 2010 Digg takes down new user registration in preparation for Digg 4.0[67]
    August 25, 2010 Digg v4 is released: My News and Publisher Streams launched
    September 1, 2010 Matt Williams replaces Kevin Rose as CEO
    October 27, 2010 Digg lays off 37% of its staff along with refocusing the service[68]
    March 18, 2011 Kevin Rose resigns from his role in the company[69]
    August 9, 2011 Newswire is launched.
    September 20, 2011 Newsroom is launched
    December 22, 2011 Digg Social Reader is introduced.
    March 6, 2012 Digg Mobile is now in a relationship with Digg Social Reader.
    July 12, 2012 Digg announced its sale to Betaworks for $500,000.[70]
    July 20, 2012 Digg announces new site redesign in progress, "rebooting" the site back to v1 as a "startup", slated for release on August 1, 2012.
    August 1, 2012 Digg releases v1 site reboot
    June 28, 2013 Digg Reader launches
    March 17, 2017 Michael O'Connor replaces Gary Liu as the CEO of Digg

    See also

    External links

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