Where is Kevin Rose taking Digg?
Kevin Rose gave a fascinating talk about where Digg is headed at The Future of Web Apps.
He clearly believes the future of news is in its recommendation engine. They’ve had some serious growth thanks to their engine:
Hang on a second. Digging activity is up 40% from launch? Of course it is, the site is growing — not necessarily because of their recommendation engine.
Commenting is up 11%? Maybe because they implemented their new commenting engine under a month and a half before their recommendation post?
I’m not doubting their recommendation system isn’t fueling growth - I’m sure it is. But how much growth? Do users of Digg want recommended news?
So where will Kevin Rose take Digg next? Digg is in an ironic situation where as it grows faster and faster, the signal to noise ratio of good : crappy submissions increases spectacularly. Submissions are based on their “coolness” primarily on how well written the Digg title is — not the quality of the article is.
And thats the inherit flaw with Digg - users can’t be trusted to submit reliable news, because its a game of getting on the front page, look at how great reddit was 18 months ago - and how it is declining.
Some of the services we’ll be focussing on are sites that rely on algorithms to decide what is “good” and “relevant” news - making users simply readers, rather than editors.
