What New Features are Coming to Digg v4?

Yesterday I wrote an article about some of the changes going on at Digg and what users should expect to see in the new version of the site when it launches in a few months. While the majority of the changes are still under wraps, Digg took the stage at the “Bigg Digg Shindigg” party at SXSW and teased the crowd about some of the new features. Those people who signed up for the alpha version of the site had a chance to see a preview of the new Digg interface and those who keep tabs on the official Digg blog caught a glimpse of the new login dialog box. It’s obvious that the company is putting a lot of time and effort into the new site which houses a new backend, new infrastructure layer, new services layer, and an overall cosmetic facelift. These are major changes so it appears the company is tearing down the entire site and building it from the ground up – one piece at a time.

So far the upcoming changes to Digg v4 seem very attractive. Since the project is five years in the making the company more than likely covered all their bases before they executed their game plan to overhaul the site. Although this might already be in the works, one important feature that I had mentioned to Digg this afternoon was an option to allow users to search for their friends on Twitter so they could connect with them on Digg. For example, if a user enters their Twitter username on Digg’s site, Digg would scan the “following” list on the user’s Twitter page, important the list to Digg, and allow the user to choose which friends to add. The good thing about this method is that there is no need to provide a username or password to Digg in order for them to access your Twitter friends list since it’s public.

Read More

Digg Launches Mobile Apps, Buttons, Widgets, and More

Let me start by saying that while I don’t make it a habit writing articles that cover every day news stories in the social media arena, on occasion I might turn out an article about social media or technology news if I personally experienced whatever it is I’m writing about or perhaps it’s just simply newsworthy. I usually spend time writing about topics that interest me personally such as the social media services I use, apps that I have the opportunity to alpha and beta test, gadgets that I use in my everyday life, and anything else that interests me. I leave the daily reporting to sites like Mashable who do a fantastic job covering social media news as it breaks as well as other topics.

With that said, I thought I would spend a few minutes writing an article about all the changes that have been going on inside Digg. For those who are not familiar with Digg, it’s a popular social news site where users discover and share content from all over the Web. Digg’s cornerstone function is voting stories up and down, also known as “Digging” and “Burying.” The most “Dugg” stories on Digg land a spot on the front page. I’ve been a loyal user of Digg for several years, but after a while I decided to stop using my Digg account and move on because I wasn’t necessarily thrilled how stories were making their way to the front page. However, over the last year I have heard about the many changes coming to Digg, therefore, I signed up for a new account back in February in hopes that when Digg “restarts” and launches Digg v4 things will be different.

Read More