If You Were Digg, Would You Expand?
On Monday, Digg launched its newest design along with more topics for people to Digg. They went outside the Technology realm and have incorporated World News, Business, Videos and Entertainment. Not really the kind of topics the typical Digg geek would thrive on you would think. So then why would they even bother?
I wonder if they really considered who their audience is and if they did maybe they felt for one reason or another the community would try their best to get involved in World News. Was there a need to go through this expansion? I don’t think there was and staying selective in their topics would worked just fine for Digg the same way it has worked for Slashdot, Fark and many others.
With 9rules we add and remove communities based on the sites within them. We don’t force a community into our Network and then go looking for sites to fill it. If the interest is there then the sites will come and I’m going to take a wild guess and say that the Digg folks were not overloaded with requests to add a business section to their site.
Sorry, but this one smells like investor intervention to me.
Perhaps they’re trying to take on the success of Newsvine? It would surprise me if it was one of the two, and it’s likely that it’s a combination of both!
By Mark Otto on June 28, 2006 11:48 am
I’m not sure the 9rules mantra of content focus is entirely applicable to Digg. While Digg has made its name as a technology site, the revolutionary aspect of it was the concept of “Digging”. I like the concept but have never been that into technology, so the expanded focus has made me revisit the site and participate to a greater extent.
I guess they’re seeing other portals like Netscape trying to muscle in on their turf and probably felt they had to expand the focus to move a step up. Having said that, the Digg brand is so widely associated with technology, perhaps they would have been better off launching a network of topic-focused sites all using the concept of “Digging”.
By weisheng on June 28, 2006 11:53 am
I don’t think they should have expanded outside of technology. If anything, broke down technology sections more, but aren’t there enough newspaper sites and such to get your regular news? I think sticking with technology would have been the best move.
“this one smells like investor intervention to me”
agreed
By J Phill on June 28, 2006 11:59 am
Oooo, I like that and that would make the design aspect even easier since as it is now you have to dig (pun intended) to get to the other stuff.
By Scrivs on June 28, 2006 12:13 pm
But then I guess you could say that might make the actual Digg site less valuable in a Yahooish kind of way.
By Scrivs on June 28, 2006 12:17 pm
People who read a tech site just done click on advertising that much. Many have add block and most likely all are pretty add blind so for an advertising driven site branching out into more general topics means they will have more people who are more likely to click advertising.
By Derek on June 28, 2006 12:17 pm
Look at it as an experiment. It cost them very little to implement. It’s hard to see how it diminishes the experience of their current, tech-oriented contingent of users. It may succeed or it may fail.
I think they’d have been stupid to sit tight. Why not probe to boundries of the envelope? Slashdot sat tight and that’s why it’s now second banana (and it was long overdue).
By Bob on June 28, 2006 12:47 pm
I agree with Scrivs’ Yahooish comment.
If people are looking for a general news site then they will most likely go to their local, regional, or national news sources. I think the core Digg audience uses the site because the stories they like aren’t well covered in those places. To dilute this niche market seems like it could be the first step down a slippery slope to a bland portal site.
Of course, it’s also important to note you can choose to completely ignore these new sections in your user preferences. The only people who will be adversely affected are those who are not logged in.
By Michael Egan on June 28, 2006 12:56 pm
If you don’t try to include new audiences, you don’t grow as a company. Simple as that.
It’s a great move. You are looking at it to one sided. Yes their audience as it is now is so-called tech nerds, however their potential audience is anyone seeking news. It so happens that technology is their forte, it is just them growing and trying to get more marketshare.
This is a common business technique. As a business more customers equals more revenue, or in this case more readers equals more revenue, so why not do it. They don’t have a need to be exclusive. As you said they are known for tech, and it will stay that way, while adding a mix of other topics which will attract new users.
By Kyle Johnson on June 28, 2006 12:58 pm
I’m not sure its VC money that’s driving the exploration of new categories in digg. I am thinking more along the lines of once you make something a success you have a need to try and duplicate it. Round 4 ring any bells? It seems your doing the same thing? Branching out into new areas with more diverse blogs. I’m saying were people beating down your door to include a black gay blog? Or is that just the way you roll. ..
Its a joke man.
By settripn1 on June 28, 2006 1:42 pm
The difference is our communities grow based on the sites that are added, not the other way around.
Kyle: Expansion in business is done within reason. Blockbuster isn’t a grocery chain because that isn’t their core, but based on your argument they should expand into anything with the change of gaining more readership.
I am saying the folks who are into sites like Digg usually aren’t the ones who are into Celebrity gossip. Not saying this won’t be a success, but it will at least be interesting to watch as time goes on.
By Scrivs on June 28, 2006 1:56 pm
I still don’t see your side of it. Sites that you add to 9rules most have a specific topic like say comic books. How is that different from Digg adding a comic book category. Other than the obvious that one is fueled by a massive collective and most of your sites by a few contibutors.
By settripn1 on June 28, 2006 2:16 pm
The thing is… these stories were already there, but didn’t have a category for them.
The first thing I did with digg 3.0 was subscribed to an individual rss feed for each main category.
2 things I noticed were (a) all the categories have a decent amount of stories being dugg (with technology still being easily the most popular) and (b) the stories I was reading weren’t anything new… I mean they were new stories but they were the same kind of stories that had already been in digg before 3.0
By Jesse J. Anderson on June 28, 2006 4:41 pm
I gotta agree with Settripn, what 9Rules and Digg are doing are very similiar.
Your compairson of Digg to Blockbuster becoming a grocery chain is a straw man. Digg, as you know, is all about sharing ideas, techniques…it’s all about the social networking.
One of the key factors, the biggest factor probably, of networking is to find something in common, friendly, identifiable, interesting…in someone else in order to make a connection of trust with that individual. It further seems to me that people who work in IT get pigeonholed into the idea that they have one-way minds that can only focus on technology — and not anything else.
Opening up other areas to Digg opens up the possibilities in networking and the social aspects. It also, of course, keeps them in the running with the likes of the new Netscrape, Newsvine and others. Smart business, if you ask me.
By Mark on June 28, 2006 4:45 pm
Mark: Got to agree with you there. Digg is a news site. Therefore they are expanding to other news areas.
If you want to use the blockbuster example, them getting into the whole “Netflix-like” business would be their method of expansion, which they have done.
I stand by what I said earlier, it’s a smart move. The ones who were there to begin with will stay, and it will attract others who arn’t necessarily techies.
By Kyle Johnson on June 28, 2006 4:50 pm
In fact, this is going to bring them into the mainstream big time. Rather than being restricted to just techies, more people will be drawn into the Digg experience. I think it was a move more out of necessity than anything, everyone else is starting to copy their idea so why not they do it first.
By weisheng on June 28, 2006 5:42 pm
Of course, expanding into new territories seperates Digg even further from Slashdot, a site whose model has the words “death” and dying” associated with it seemingly more and more every passing day.
By Mark on June 28, 2006 6:10 pm
The problem I have comparing Digg to 9rules is that again, these sites get brought to us and we have to create the new communities, where in Digg’s case I don’t recall seeing anyone posting about Jessica Simpson before. However, if those items were sneaking in before then yes it makes sense to expand the way they did.
However, I am saying I don’t see how this expansion expands their audience. Their pageviews will definitely increase, but I think the audience will remain the same, although it will grow somewhat as well.
The Blockbuster argument wasn’t a strawman, just a poor example, but I wanted to show that expansion isn’t always the key to growth for a company. A good example would be b5media vs. Gawker.
By Scrivs on June 28, 2006 8:49 pm
But honestly Paul, dont you think the Digg guys (I dont know them, maybe you do) have some metric that indicates the need for these new sections?
The only difference I see is that you have the luxury of having a metric delivered to you in the form of a 24-hour submission process, whereas Digg has to go through the typical channels to attain theirs. I would think (hope) that an organization with a few million in funding would apply a little more to their needs analysis than “hey, hasn’t someone posted anything on Jessica Simpson?”
But like I say, I dont know the Digg folks, and I’m not a part of 9R. I’m only speaking from my experiences.
By Mark on June 28, 2006 9:19 pm
I would hope so as well and obviously I write this post not knowing how they went about picking new topics. Of course I think we both agree that millions in funding never equated to good decision making ability.
By Scrivs on June 28, 2006 9:31 pm
We can agree on that, on the premise that we agree that millions in funding never always equates to bad decision making ability either.
By Mark on June 28, 2006 9:54 pm
Now that was funny.
By settripn1 on June 28, 2006 10:26 pm
i think it is a good move. I’ve always dreamt of visiting just 1~3 sites to get everything i need instead of going all over.
By whitespace on June 29, 2006 12:23 am
Agreed.
By Scrivs on June 29, 2006 12:32 pm
Perhaps it’s another sign of a company getting greedy. The golden rule of business is don’t spread self too thin and know your market and stick to it. Only time will tell if it is a smart move or not. It has got everyone talking about them again and brings to mind the publicity good concept.
By karmatosed on June 30, 2006 8:00 am
Doesnt’ anyone remember the days of Systm and how it turned into two guys sitting on a couch drinking beer?
I think the expansion is a way to contain the less intelligent crowd and to introduce new blood into the digg community. Kevin wants digg to be taken seriously and to do this he needs to break up or contain the Apple faction that uses digg as a place to hang out.
I think if there’s anyone motivated to expand the site it’s Kevin. Go back and listen to the Digg 3.0 annoucement and listen carefully to what Kevin has to say.
By Michael on June 30, 2006 4:45 pm
Personally I think it was a good move. You are correct in saying that the current readership is more ‘Technology’ minded, but this change doesn’t really effect them.
Isn’t it just an opportunity for more people to get involved in the site? People who might be interested in the World News…
I don’t see it causing them any problems, and most likely more growth.
By Ben Lilley on June 30, 2006 7:48 pm
[...] So, a lot of people weren’t as impressed by the new design as by the new features of digg version 3 [1,2,3]. The reception of the new categories was generally positive — finally we have a place to put those articles that aren’t directly tech related. Even so, some think the decision for this expansion was mainly money-driven. It may have played an important part, and I frankly don’t see anything wrong with that. [...]
By bits by ben : Digg design adjustment on July 1, 2006 8:03 am
[...] Original post by Scrivs [...]
By If You Were Digg, Would You Expand? » Project Syndicate on July 2, 2006 1:05 am
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By Cape Tech Herald » Blog Archive » If You Were Digg, Would You Expand? on July 11, 2006 6:22 am