Will the “New Digg” Breathe New Life Into the Service?
During Michael Arrington’s interview with Kevin Rose, the Digg-founder states, “I believe that it’s time for Digg to get a little bit more real-time in nature. And we need to be a living and breathing site.” He goes on to say that he expects Digg to see these changes somewhere in the next six months.
There’s no denying the fact that most future web services will instinctively adopt a real-time functionality. Just one look at microblogging and/or activity streaming, and one notices just how useful the real-time web can be. Digg’s current offering definitely lacks this dynamic, so it is an obvious and necessary next step. One can only wonder just what exactly this new iteration will include.
In regards to Arrington’s inquiries involving the future direction of Digg, Rose explains: “…new directions for us that you will look at and I guarantee you would be like that’s a ballsy move.”
So what will the “New Digg” be like?
You can safely bet that the site will become more interactive by nature. Most likely, the site will develop a real-time platform for ‘digging’ content while showing activity feeds of Digg members (not unlike Twitter/FriendFeed). I presume that content will extend beyond just news into all sorts of categories. In fact, the interview had also mentioned (pretty unclearly, however) thoughts of digging certain advertisements/campaigns. Overall, I see the service eliminating certain barriers, becoming even more transparent. I can even see them utilize the tools they have developed in Digg Labs, like Stack [pic], for example. Used effectively, this could bring a new dynamic to the sometimes-static nature of Digg.
It is definitely time for Digg to become more social and interactive. I just wonder if it will be enough to grab the attention of the masses, something that Kevin Rose so desperately wants to achieve.
“I believe that it’s time for Digg to get a little bit more real-time in nature. And we need to be a living and breathing site.”
-Kevin Rose
