For hundreds of years news has been chosen by appointed journalists and the readers were forced to put up with it with very little input. Digg is changing that. This service allows the users to choose which news is the best. The advantages of user-driven news websites such as Digg are that you get the chance to find links and news that otherwise may not have been exposed.

Digg

Digg first appeared in late 2004 as a beta, and was programmed by Owne Byrne but publicized by Kevin Rose. Digg’s success was first apparent when a story about Paris Hilton’s cell phone being hacked appeared there. Since then digg’s success has been unstoppable. I’ve been a digg user since early 2005 and it just so happens that I am the 5th highest user on digg.

This is the way Digg works. A user submits a story here.

Step 1. Enter the URL

Step 2. Enter a title and description, and choose a catagory

Step 3. The story appears in the Digg All section, which can be viewed in either Story View or Cloud View

Step 4. User diggs the story, which sends an XMLHttpRequest, so that you are not required to refresh the page. The more diggs a story gets, the more likely it is to get on the homepage.

Step 5. If the story gets enough diggs it’s promoted to the homepage.

A great feature of digg is the friends feature. You can add friends and when they digg a story, the story gets a little green banner on it, letting you know that one of your friends dugg it.

Digg’s Pros:

A very effecient process for a story getting exposed.
Digg Spy, just check it out.

Digg’s Cons:

No threaded comments.
No user blocking.

Related posts:

The Digg Effect
See What News is Being Read on Digg Spy 2.0
Digg Army: Right in Line
New Digg.com feature and design commentary
Digg Introduces New Features

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