Digg revolutionized
social news when it
launched in 2004. Since
then, it has become the
undisputed champ of
news link ranking sites.
They just recently
crossed the million
mark. And their
influence goes far
beyond those user
registration numbers.
Tangible evidence of
Digg ’s importance: the
raw number of clones
and Digg gaming
schemes out there.
We ’ve seen rigging,
vote buying, profile
sales, and accusations
of thug rule. The
dozens of clones
include a not-bad
SourceForge project
called Pligg, which lets
users “build their own
Digg”.
But Digg’s ubiquity and
influence doesn’t mean
it’s perfect. A number
of startups are tackling
the same problem as
Digg – sharing of good
content via link
submission and some
form of voting. One of
them, stumbleupon,
actually has more
registered users than
Digg. For the most part,
though, these sites
won ’t be able to do
much damage to Digg’s
steady growth. But
many of them are
worth looking at, and
they all have individual
features that could, if
incorporated into Digg,
make it a better overall
service.
*Personalized refers to
recommendations
uniquely tailored for
each user
BlinkList
BlinkList takes a
distributed approach to
the Digg model. It lets
anyone get their own
link blog where they
can add their favorites.
BlinkList then looks
across the whole
network and ranks the
site based on how many
other users added the
link.
ClipMarks
Instead of full URLs,
Clipmarks lets users
share just the best parts
of webpages. Using
their plugin, you can
bundle together your
favorite selections of
content from a
webpage. This includes
text as well as pictures
and video. Submissions
are then “popped” by
other members of the
community, with the
most popular at the
top. Using the plugin,
you can also submit
your clips to your blog.
Currently, the site’s two
pane page layout gives
me the feeling of
looking at the net
through a steamship
porthole.
CoRank
CoRank confronts the
mob mentality on Digg.
Digg promotes stories to
the front page based on
the votes of the whole
community, resulting in
a lot of noise for users
with interests different
from the crowd.
CoRank lets you look at
all submitted links or
filter out the noise by
subscribing links from
just the users you
choose. Only the
highest rated stories
from your subscribed
sources make your
front page.
Netscape
Netscape has also
taken on Digg’s mob
mentality, mixing in their
own team of anchors to
submit stories and cut
out spam. The anchor ’s
stories are featured on
the front page along
with the current top 25
stories. They also got
into a little hot water
with their recruitment
practices. Netscape has
managed a greater
variety of content in it ’s
front page, pulling 2
stories from each of the
top 10 most popular
channels and 1 story
from each of the next 5
most popular channels.
Newsvine
Instead of a submission
free-for-all, Newsvine
implemented it’s own
form of quality control
by only allowing users
to vote on content from
the Associated Press
and other user ’s
personal articles. Users
are given a live feed of
all the latest AP stories,
voting on articles and
writing their own on
their personal column
page. Newsvine shares
90% of all revenue
generated by
advertisements on your
column page with the
user. Users can also
personalize their feed
OpenServing
OpenServing is a
product of Wikia, and
the opensource version
of BlinkList works for
fun or profit. The
concept is the same, a
personal page of links,
democratically ranked
by your friends, but it
also lets you post your
own ads on the site.
Reddit
Reddit
made
headlines when Conde
Nast acquired them.
The site is a favorite of
mine and is still up and
running, with some key
differences from Digg.
Reddit rankings are
based on an absolute
vote (+1 for hot, -1 for
cold), meaning a story
can dance up and down
Reddit ’s top page
instead of being buried
out of existence by a
few power users. To see
what ’s on top now,
there’s also a “hot” list.
This type of voting
system also means the
front page can be
stagnant, to the
chagrin of some users,
but it has also avoided
Digg ’s payola scandals.
Another bigger
differentiator for Reddit
is their recommended
article page, which
suggests links based on
your voting pattern.
Spotback
Spotback is an
automated alternative
to Digg, that aims to use
personalization to
improve the signal to
noise ratio of the stories
you see. You train
Spotback by clicking
and voting on the
stories it digs up. Voting
positively on a story
causes Spotback to
reveal the next most
relevant story. One of
the best parts about
Spotback is that it
doesn ’t even require a
registration to get up
and running.
Spotplex
Spotplex is another
automated link site that
automatically submits
stories from blogs
carrying its badge.
Stories are then ranked
on the Spotplex
homepage based in part
on how many views the
article generates (the
algorithm is still being
tweaked). The site ’s
automation and closely
controlled blogroll
seems has avoided the
types of rigging Digg
was subjected to, but it
lacks the community of
commentors that make
these social media sites
addictive.
StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon provides
a different user
experience while
discovering and digging
up links. You use a
tooblar (FF & IE) to tag,
submit, and vote for
links. While the site
does rank links the
main experience is by
taking a random walk
around the internet. It
keys in on Diggs
greatest strength, an
easily accessible
constant stream of
interesting links.
StumbleUpon is
definitely catching on,
they recently surpassed
2 million users
.
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