Digg Is Back (Sort Of)
Digg, the dominant link aggregator of the mid-2000s, is trying to make another comeback. Kevin Rose, one of the original founders of Digg, acquired the trademark for an undisclosed amount and is teaming up with Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian to create a new social network. The plan was announced this morning in articles on Techcrunch and in the New York Times .
These articles don’t have many specific details about what the site will look like, although they do note that it will use artificial intelligence as a key moderation tool. “Online communities thrive when there is a balance between technology and human judgment,” Ohanian told Techcrunch, adding that “AI should do the heavy lifting in the background while humans focus on what they do best: building real connections.”
That’s it for the specifics: both articles focus less on the technology and more on the founders themselves. But we do know that the new Digg won’t be like an “old school forum,” according to Rose. He said that in a few years it “will be an interface unlike any other you’ve seen.” Whatever that means.
Digg was founded in 2004—more than two decades ago, an eternity by Internet standards—by Rose and others. Reddit arrived on the scene about a year later in 2005, founded by current CEO Steve Huffman, the late hacktivist Aaron Schwartz , and Ohanian. These two websites battled for link aggregator dominance for five years, with Reddit ultimately winning the competition. One way to look at this story is that Reddit eventually won over users, although one could also argue that Digg destroyed itself: a wildly flawed and widely unpopular 2010 redesign launched under Rose’s leadership prioritized the posts of certain members and ultimately led to a mass exodus of users. The site never recovered and was soon more or less sold off piece by piece in 2012.
How to sign up for early access to the new Digg
Invitations to the new version of the site will be sent out in the next few weeks – if you’re interested, you can sign up here and try it out. With any luck, this won’t be just another place to shout about screenshots taken from other social networks; The Internet could certainly use something truly new. However, only time will tell.