Is Digg Losing Its Appeal?
Posted on May 23, 2007, under Tools and Services.
There has been a lot of bad press over the last several months for Digg. First is was the HD-DVD crack code scandal, and now it is all over the news that Digg is banning users for Digging too much. It certainly seems like there are some decisions being made within the company, that are not going over well with the community. To make it worse, when you do not communicate your decisions and reasons ahead of time with a community they feel very alienated.
Out of curiosity I looked at Diggs traffic ratings this morning, and it’s hard to determine where they are at with their traffic. First Alexa is not perfect, but most importantly it’s hard to tell if the trends are because of this recent bad press or it it’s season… AKA Geeks are spending more time outside and away from the computer because of summer.
So why is all of this bad press surrounding Digg? With these changes Digg definitely has more of a corporate view upon them, as apposed to the cool personal community image it has carried for so long. Why are they changing the way they do things internally so much that it’s affecting the community? Digg is one of the few “Web 2.0″ companies that hasn’t sold out to the man with an acquisition. We have yet to see Digg go the route of Friendster where a new service comes along and everyone jumps ship; but maybe something is in the works and soon to come. Aside from advertising, Digg has yet to formally announce a business plan so maybe something is in the works.
It will be very interesting to see how Diggs new decisions affect it long term.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Steve S on May 25, 2007
Honestly, I think Digg is just going through growing pains. As they increase the level of advertising (and their overall levels of traffic) they are starting to find that their corporate sponsors want to be assured they will stay afloat.
As such, they have to crack down on some of the more blatant abuses of the system.
Then again, I haven’t actively used Digg in quite sometime. There might be a reason for that…hm.