Digg: Social Media Phenom or Not?
July 19, 2006
Both Scott Karp (Publishing2.0) and Michael Arrington (TechCrunch) have interesting posts today on Digg and its clone, the new Netscape.com. They offer two very different takes on Netscape’s market position and Digg’s significance as a new model for serving up online news.
Scott says Netscape could pull of a ‘win’ if they continue to cater to "average people", but we need to stop pretending Digg is some social media revolution. Arrington says the Netscape titatanic is sinking and Jason Calacanis’ offer to buy Digg.com power users is evidence of AOL’s desperation, and that Digg’s model and enthusiastic base are truly innovating.
Karp says Digg.com isn’t a wisdom of crowds social media phenomenon at all:
But let’s stop pretending this is about a “social media” revolution.
While Michael Arrington at Tech Crunch seems to think it’s more than that:
So what do you think? Which is it?
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‘Soulless reproduction’ is fair enough, IMHO. It’s clearly a clone of Digg, and not as successful. Now offering “$1,000 for doing what you do already” appears pretty crass.
It’s a way to up the submissions, and it’s a way to generate more free publicity to the Netscape site. I imagine the numbers there are really hurting. And to think you couldn’t find a better editor than a “Digg Power User” is a comical thought.
Comment by Darren McLaughlin — July 19, 2006 @ 3:06 pm