So Digg has been rebuilt once again. However, this time around, it is not some sort of add on features, but a completely new Digg built from scratch. In fact, it is so new that the Digg team is calling it the new version 1. According to them the old version was expensive and did not give them much space for innovation. So they built a new Digg with fresh code base which is modern, fast, shiny and new, according to the Digg team.
Even though it has been quite a while, but the first time I noticed it was when the little Digg buttons on the floating share too bar that we see on almost every blog these days, did not work. I thought it was temporary, but it just did not work, it still does not. I thought I will investigate this a little and when I went to the Digg site, I couldn’t believe there was no Digg. I mean not the one I knew. I couldn’t log in, as must have been the case with others too. I also learnt, all your past activity and data was also gone. I did not like the idea that I was being forced to login with Facebook. What if I did not have a Facebook id? I know almost everyone has a Facebook id today. But still, it just did not feel right.
I have heard many people praise Digg’s new look. But frankly, I wasn’t very impressed. It just looks like a simple ordinary blog to me. Earlier it had an abundance of Blue, Yellow, and Green which has been replaced by lots of white. Now you have the important stories as displaying prominently on the homepage with larger images. But does it make it better? All the stories look alien to me as they are all preselected and you cannot choose what to see there. That may change in the future, as of now you are stuck with what they show you.
It has changed so much that it is like relearning to use it all over again. I wonder if people have the time and patience for it in the first place. I used Digg because it had the potential to send a lot of visitors to my site. I will wait and watch to see how it shapes up in the near future and decide if it is well worth the time to learn the intricacies of the new Digg.
Another thing you will notice is that the old content is gone without a notification from the Digg team; so many years of data just gone like that. Digg says that they are working on retrieving the data and that there is an option to submit your email id if you are interested in getting your content back. However, I did not expect such an unprofessional approach from such a well know site.
I know I have not said anything positive about the new Digg at all. But I just cannot see why it was redesigned in the first place. I want to see the innovation that was lacking in the old site. Perhaps, the innovative stuff is yet to be put into the new Digg.