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Digg 'will grow by letting others copy us'

guardian.co.uk — Social news website Digg.com is considering opening itself up further to allow other websites to copy its model, its co-founder has said. In an interview with the Guardian, Digg chief executive Jay Adelson said the company was not looking to expand into more niche markets, but would prefer to "empower someone else" to do so.

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  • verge, on 11/01/2007, -0/+13Interview here http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/oct/31/j ...
  • DannyAndNina, on 11/01/2007, -1/+18If you think about the contrast between this sort of "open" mentality and the "closed" mentality of traditional media industries (esp. music + film) it's easy to see who will be more successful in the years ahead.... Kudos to Digg for embracing openness and not being frightened by competition.
    • Roger, on 11/01/2007, -4/+2(... and sucking up to all the open source geeks)
    • fkr3, on 11/01/2007, -3/+14Digg's not embracing openness. They are very much a closed source company even though they're built on open source platforms.

      What they're doing is putting a pretty spin on the fact that they can't stop others from copying them. There's thousands of digg clones out there covering many topics and languages.
      • ThatsUnpossible, on 11/01/2007, -3/+3Who said anything about source? You can be open without giving away your source, look at Google's dozens of public APIs into their services (and more coming).

        And you're also wrong on the second count, there's a difference between not stopping someone from copying you, and making it easy to duplicate what you're doing.
        • fkr3, on 11/01/2007, -0/+6They're not open either. They release a tiny subset of their data through their API.... only slightly more than what most sites use RSS for.

          Facilitating the copying is irrelevant, it's already too late for that - the site's already been cloned dozens of times as open source and closed source versions in a variety of languages.

          The site is well made and it's not small, but it's not exactly complicated. The only thing they've done that is (at least for now) impossible to reproduce is succeed.
    • Roger, on 10/31/2007, -3/+3To keep everything in perspective, remember the HD-DVD code incident a few months ago and all the censorship/moderation that goes on in the background.
      • ThatsUnpossible, on 11/04/2007, -1/+5To keep the HD-DVD thing in perspective, remember that Digg was simply trying to avoid being sued for what they felt was a possible infringement.

        Also keep in mind the childish antics of the users that kept posting the useless code over and over again. I learned a lot about the digg 'community' that day.
        • Roger, on 10/31/2007, -0/+1"remember that Digg was simply trying to avoid being sued for what they felt was a possible infringement"

          Ah, but digg eventually gave in when users threatened to leave. What does that say about digg?
        • jayadelson, on 10/31/2007, -0/+1It says that we hadn't implemented our Chilling Effects code yet, and that lack of transparency cost us a lot that morning when many Digg users mistook our action as a form of editorial...or "giving into the man."
  • MikeonTV, on 11/04/2007, -6/+1Rock N Roll!!
  • cledford, on 11/01/2007, -1/+2Genius marketing approach. It's always best for the first movers to stay niche.
  • supernova17, on 11/01/2007, -0/+5The article is wrong, there aren't 21 million users. It's unique views a month I think.
    • grendelboogie, on 10/31/2007, -1/+221 million unique visitors is what they meant to say.
    • jayadelson, on 10/31/2007, -0/+1Correct, it was 21.5M unique visitors a month (as of September).
  • derrickgossman, on 11/04/2007, -4/+35I just love visiting digg to read about digg, and how awesome digg is.
    • mcd9236, on 10/31/2007, -1/+1dugg user for the - I'm hoping - semi-sarcastic remark about digg fanatics
    • se7en11, on 10/31/2007, -0/+1I much prefer to post how great I am.
  • Error601, on 10/31/2007, -0/+4Define "copying a model".

  • ArtificialAnus, on 10/31/2007, -0/+1I believe the idea is that the people in charge of digg know that by continuing on, they're competing for a bigger slice of the pie, but by opening the product up, they're going to make the pie bigger... In so doing, everyone will profit.
  • patrick24601, on 10/31/2007, -1/+1How do "let" someone copy you? That is like being 95 lbs in prison (or being Kobe Bryant's Date) and figting sex. No matter how much fight it is going to happen. Save your energy. You're gonna get *****.
  • Roger, on 10/31/2007, -1/+4What special technology does digg have behind it?
    • Genady, on 10/31/2007, -0/+4Super Ninja Hamsters, didn't you see that story last week?
  • vade79, on 10/31/2007, -1/+1I'm not sure what there is to 'copy' by opening up, you can copy digg.com with or without it being 'open'. (ie. netscape.com)
  • sUGArDawg, on 10/31/2007, -0/+1So now stories will take DAYS/WEEKS to make the front page of other news outlets??
  • MadScientist68, on 10/31/2007, -3/+1This is awesome. I have ideas to which I would like to apply the digg model. If they could open the platform up to allow things like that, or perhaps open source their code. That would be great. It's all about innovation and growing as a person/nation/company.
  • DrediKnight, on 10/31/2007, -3/+2Can Digg sue me if I start a site that lets users rank topics up and down?
  • mcd9236, on 11/04/2007, -0/+3I would like to see niche digg clones possibly as separate sites, but partnered with digg. This way the niche clones could be dugg and the overall most dugg clones would have links from the digg homepage. This would be sort of like how google has the most accessed modules (images, videos, news, maps, etc.) available on the front page. Then you could search through all of the available digg-partnered clones. The first on the top of my head is hugg.com. It could be run completely separate, except be registered with digg to allow for this niche ability. Digg would then get more traffic from people looking for niche sites.
  • lazyfisherman, on 10/31/2007, -1/+0A CMS freely available to the public that cloned Digg that was released by Digg would be awesome. People would go crazy with joy. Pligg and .NET kicks are good but a Digg release would hopefully be even better. If they put themselves out of business by releasing some of their software, they were going to go out of business anyway.
  • bingobongony, on 10/31/2007, -1/+1It alreay HAS expanded into many niche markets. And when the pictures section opens, it will expand even further.
    When they add an images section, they should not add it to digg. they should make a new site called the Digg Kiddies section. Or Digg Jr. And that is where the video, images, and the You Gotta See This! submissions could go. Or perhaps call it the comic releif. Then you can include all Ron Paul and troofer submissions as well.
  • mariachi, on 10/31/2007, -0/+1Sounds good, cuz right now it's shrinking: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details? ...
    • blackhydra, on 10/31/2007, -0/+0Because Alexa traffic rankings are the most reliable source of information, right?
      • mariachi, on 11/02/2007, -0/+1since most of the people stupid enough to install the alexa toolbar are digg users that are doing so in order to boost digg ratings, in this case, yes, it is a reliable source of information.
  • derekknight, on 10/31/2007, -1/+3Obviously Digg "CEO" and general tool, Jay, never visited Fark.com. They have been doing this crap for years. I think Jay is starting to believe his own *****.
  • Mykol225, on 10/31/2007, -1/+0Dugg for not selling out!
  • mediaspree, on 10/31/2007, -0/+3http://www.flickdirect.com digg for movies
  • elijahalcantara, on 10/31/2007, -1/+1http://pinolinks.com - another pligg site, there are lots of others like this, If you'd like your own pligg site: http://www.pligg.com/
  • SeanNorton, on 10/31/2007, -0/+0I could be wrong, but I thought DIGG was already based on opensource programs, and therefore wouldn't really require much. As it is, wordpress already has a digg theme http://www.peterandrej.com/2007/10/27/the-digg-the ...
  • leadingzero, on 10/31/2007, -2/+1http://www.socialbookmarking.us FTW
  • PRlME, on 10/31/2007, -0/+1www.designfloat.com
    !!!!
  • geekee, on 10/31/2007, -0/+2Could we get a version of Digg that gives responsible, unbiased political news, and leave the bias for the commentary? Oh wait, no, because the truth is not necessarily what Digg voters want it to be, which is why democracy in news is a non-starter.
  • lifewithryan, on 10/31/2007, -0/+1Here's one launching soon that focuses on politics:
    http://pol.itik.us (politikus) though it doesn't have the digg look and feel it still involves votes and promotion etc.
    Also has the status of the site, etc at a blog located at http://blog.itik.us
  • perot9296, on 10/31/2007, -0/+0The pictures section is supposed to launch in October, yet its still not up? WTF? Also I'd like an option to unbury an item, sometimes I click the wrong link
    • jaymie, on 10/31/2007, -0/+0I agree. It should be like a zombie button or something. Unbury! Walk the earth again! Eat flesh!
  • Meursault, on 10/31/2007, -0/+0Hey, it works for Asian college students.
  • kcoe, on 10/31/2007, -0/+0www.fantasyfanaticnews.com is another site that is a sports based digg like clone
  • anthonylawrence, on 10/31/2007, -0/+0Doesnt this come as somewhat of a surprise too people out there? I mean Digg was pretty much sending out cease and desist letters to Digg type sites up till awhile back?

    I suppose they realised that people are now naming such sites "Digg-Clones" etc..... hmm....
  • jaymie, on 10/31/2007, -0/+0Stories like this... just seem like Digg incest. Digg loves itself. Oh wait, maybe that's masturbation. Diggsturbation?
  • whistlerpro, on 11/01/2007, -0/+1I can has digg code?
  • mrrbob, on 11/01/2007, -0/+0Digg should produce an open source clone program and make it available to all. This could be installed by anyone to produce their own mini version of digg geared to local news or what ever niche subject the site owner chose.

    The key to make this work would be to have these sites built so that all top stories would be auto submitted to the main digg site.

    Digg could partner with radio, newspaper and TV station sites also to submit top local news stories. If digg chose this route they would need to offer a regional news option to auto sort your digg Front Page as there would be too many stories to just aggregate them all on one front page.

    Lets face it though if digg is ever to reach its full potential it must move toward something like this as now the stories that reach the front page are to narrow in focus to appeal to the average local newspaper reader. Not that I am bashing digg as I do read it now but I don't think my wife even knows it exist and If I were to show it to her she would not be interested in all the tech and gamer stuff. She would say something like how to I get to the local news section.

    Back to the local version of digg to solve the above problem. I would also make it a condition of install that digg would have the top banner spot ads to garner revenue from all the local mini digg sites and local eyeballs. You could have ads down the sides to cover revenue for the webmaster/site owner.

    Dig would need to organize itself into regional news and industry news sections in order to make it easier for people to just cruse by and find what they wanted. If everyone has to login and go through a customization process you would lose too many potential eyeballs as people want easy easy easy.

    This would also allow digg to expand to other countries that are not English language based.

    This would make digg into a monster site yes but it would also make digg into something with unlimited potential. Unlimited potential is exactly what digg lacks with it's present format.
  • GZYN007, on 11/02/2007, -0/+0If they were to provide a platform for other sites, then here are some key features that they will need for viral adoption. http://www.gzyn.com/cmp/contentReadingActions.do?m ...
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