Posted on August 26, 2010 - by

New Digg copied Facebook and Twitter Too Much!

general tips Social Media
New Digg copied Facebook and Twitter Too Much!

Yesterday, I went to Digg’s website and saw a beautiful new look. The design however, looks and “feels” like Facebook’s design. I logged in to my account and found also that the features there closely resembled Twitter. All of this is what they call Digg 4.

The service now has a “follow” and “unfollow” feature. I thought that was cool. I also noticed that when you log in to your account, you are taken to a page where you see all the submissions and diggs of the people you follow.

It also has a suggestion page that shows you a list of people and brands to follow. Just like Twitter.

Before I could say “Jack”, this page came up:

Has Twitter bought Digg or Digg is just copying Twitter? If it’s an act of copying, then Digg overdid it. Twitter has a fail whale and now, Digg is flaunting their “broken axle” page.

I’m still checking it out. I think they did too much copying this time. Have you found any features similar to Twitter’s on the new Digg? It’s like the company has Twitter’s blueprint.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 12:52 pm and is filed under general tips, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
  • http://www.fitzhugh.me Scott Fitzhugh

    OH MY GOD THEY PUT UP A MESSAGE WITH A CLEVER PICTURE WHEN THEIR INCREDIBLY HIGH VOLUME WEBSITE FAILS!!!!! THAT WAS TOTALLY MY IDEA!!1!

    They’re trying to solve a problem with the way we consume news… We want the news that’s important to us and nothing else. They started out providing just tech news with a single ‘front page’ feed that was supposed to meet that need. As things grew they needed to be more specific for each user. They also had to make database changes to accommodate such a huge user-base and those database changes necessitate this type of site-flow. Read up on Cassandra.

    All of this is best solved by following this simple organic pattern that both facebook, twitter (others) and now digg have evolved into.

    It’s not a matter of copying…

    it’s a matter of three companies (and many others) finding that the solution to their common problem is best solved by following this pattern.

    Convergent evolution sucka!

    • http://www.sociatic.com Kwame

      I agree with your points of Digg trying to serve us with the news that’s important to us but isn’t that why we have RSS feeds on blogs?

      Isn’t that why the Digg community (and other voting site communities) vote up articles that are useful and relevant or that deserved to be shared?

      The voting up of articles and images is already a time saver.

      I don’t think there should be a lack of innovation and ideas for a company that has done so well over the years. I don’t hate Digg but I think they should have known better. My advice is for them to lead innovation and not just copy other company’s innovation.

      After all, the “selective news” feature was thought of by someone innovative.

      • http://Www.Fitzhugh.me Scott

        The innovation is there… But like so many other subtle creations… This one is hidden where neither you nor I can see it.

        Facebook delivers a complete rss style feed of everyone you are friends with. Sure you can do some course grain blocking but that’s about all of the control you have over it.

        Same with Twitter. If you add them to your list then their news goes up on your feed.

        The old digg relied totally on users voting stories up and down to send them to the front page. This led to lots and lots of questions about whether or not something was actually news. Users who disagreed with the opinions of the masses tended to quibble about the algorithm and in the end it’s impossible to cater to everyone using a single feed system like this.

        The new digg seems to be a mix of both.

        You choose the people you want to follow based on your interests. These users then digg and post articles and their algorithm selects from these stories which ones should be of interest to you. It would be like the “like” button on facebook determining which status updates show up to other users.

        Not a simple setup and no small feat to deliver a consistent experience to such a large volume of users.

        This update puts digg squarely out in the lead again in terms of technology.. Even if it’s evolutionary advancement instead of revolutionary… Which is something of a moot point as they aren’t really in the same market anyway.

        • http://www.sociatic.com Kwame

          I understand and agree with your points but that is just one part of the story.

          I get the idea behind having a “broken axel” page but isn’t that the same idea Twitter used for its “fail whale” page? There should be limits to copying. I think Digg didn’t see that limit or they just jumped over it.

          Facebook came up with Facebook Stories! Google copied it and started their own search stories, Twitter copied it and started their own Twitter tales. There are other examples with Foursquare and Facebook and other social media giants. All these are good examples of “copying acts” but none of these services force their users to use their new features. There is always some choice and it’s good.

          I think there should be a way for Digg users to choose between old and new versions of Digg just like Yahoo does with its All New Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Classic. Service dictatorship will sack users from the site because they’ve had enough of “follow” and “unfollow” features on almost every social network. Are those the only words around for the same feature? Even top users who “live” their lives on Digg are complaining.

  • Diggisdead

    I don’t like Facebook copying some aspects of Twitter. I don’t like Digg copying some aspects of Twitter.

    (Old) Digg is not for you if you love Twitter so much.

    PS. Not everyone likes Twitter

    • http://www.sociatic.com Kwame

      “Not everyone likes Twitter”, Exactly. Digg is powered by a loving community. It’ll be sad to see many leave because they are disappointed with the “service dictatorship”. Many old features have been pulled down and Digg is like a brand new social network altogether now.

  • Luis

    I think’s Digg’s intentions for their new site were good. I admit they copied a lot from Twitter and facebook. I would like to see a service that provides curated categorized interest news. My news should be news that is categorized towards the type of news that I am most interested in viewing…There should also be a seperation between the publishers you follow and the the people you follow that are your personal friends. I don’t care to see all the articles that the people I follow (publishers) Digg. Ofcourse publishers are going to Digg every article they submit but that does not mean I want to see these articles. I would be more interested in the diggs from the people I follow that are my true friends (My personal community). There should be a seperation between publishers and friends. I would be interested in the community that I follow that I consider friends and not some corporate entity…

    I would like your thoughts…

    I am working on a site that will seperate the relevant posts from the unrelevant posts from facebook and twitter. I see it as an extension to facebook and twitter where the relevant real time information will land in a page that I call “My News” In my news you will have the option to opt in to all the different category types of all the different type of real time news you are interested to see. The site is called My Live Place. It will be your own personalized social portal for real time news and other personalized content. If anyone is interested, you can sign up for Myliveplace fan page on facebook or Twitter. We are currently working on this.

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