Happy new year!
I had a couple of readers on the Seeking Alpha blog ask why I was critical of Digg here and here.
Here’s my reply:
I actually think Digg was quite novel when it launched, though I always felt that the commenting aspect created more noise than value.
On a somewhat philosophical value: things come full circle, and Digg is no different. How does the fact that, say, the top 20 Diggers determine what goes on Digg’s main page any different than the editors who choose what goes on CNN’s main page? Digg has become exactly what it sought to “replace” or “improve.”
I think my comments represent my thoughts on the social bookmarking space in general, which is getting out of control. I also think the user-generated content / user-attributed space has gotten ahead of itself. Mind you, I should disclose that I am in the business of creating and aggregating content, so seeing financiers get so psyched about user-attributed content (which to me is akin to building a house on quicksand) is surprising.
In the offline world, we do not expect others to do our work and us walk away from the value created. Yet investors are banking on this phenomena in the online world? That seems dangerous.
I have nothing against Digg per se, but seeing a social bookmarking site raise $8.5 million in Series B financing raises some questions about the giddy level of the market - especially when the founders think that $150 million is fair price to sell.
You can see my thoughts on what to expect in the space under #2, and #3 mainly, here:
Top 10 Trends of 2007
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January 1st, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Happy News Year Froosh !
It is very funny I came across this post. I wrote this piece last week about Digg Digg: On the Outside Looking In.
I agree 100% with you. IMO Digg has become a high school clique, you are in or you are out.
My point was,as you state, Digg has become what it sought not to be.