I mention Digg a lot in my weekly column, ‘The Any Key,’ but I’ve never really explained what it is. Digg has become a pretty popular social news site, with some even calling it a ‘Web 2.0 phenomenon.’ But it’s fair to say most people are still unfamiliar with what Digg is, and how it works.

To say the least, Digg is a lot of different tech tools all rolled up into one. A social networking site, news site, an aggregator and a bookmarking tool, Digg is the best parts of the Internet all in one place.

Here’s how it works: Users (Diggers) submit links to stories, pictures or videos that they like into a multitude of categories from tech news (which is what Digg first began as) to political opinion to games to random stuff. Once the link is submitted, other browsing Diggers can (hopefully) see the link and check it out. If they like it, they digg it. If they don’t, they bury it. Links that get a lot of diggs quickly make it to the front page of the site. Some of the most popular linked sites on Digg can and have, crashed because of so many hits from the Digg homepage.

The format of Digg is pretty standard, and in truth, has been around since sites like Slashdot and Reddit, Digg’s predecessors. What makes Digg stand out is its unique comment system, which implements the same system of diggs and buries that its links get. In effect, thoughtful, funny or relevant comments get dugg up and stand out, while rude, irrelevant or spam comments get buried and hidden.

Digg scores in two big ways: It democratizes content on the Web and makes it easy to find the funny and interesting stuff out there. It also contributes new content via its commenting system – often the comment thread on a hotly debated link is more thought provoking than the content itself.

While sometimes the headlines that come across the front page of Digg are nonsense and worthless (lolcats, videos of people getting hit in the crotch), more often than not the content is meaningful, and I’ve even found a few stories on Digg before seeing them elsewhere (as I’m writing this, I just saw that Arthur C. Clarke died).

Digg accounts are free, and you don’t need to be a member to access the site and content, only to post a comment, submit a link or to digg/bury items.

ajchavar@syr.edu

Published on March 18, 2008 at 12:00 pm