This will be my last post about the new Digg site. I’ve found watching the new site go live and the reactions from both passionate Digg users and the blogs that have reaped the big cash rewards of a busted algorithm fascinating. I think there is one set of topics that hasn’t been discussed and so this post will conclude my coverage.

Why Digg Won’t Change

I struggled with using “won’t” or “shouldn’t” for this section. Apparently this new release marks the fifth time Digg users have gone on the offensive for changes to the social news (?) service. With a new CEO at the helm as of today, Digg could be trying to position the service for growth. I think that Digg is instead trying to change in the hopes of getting fresh acquisition interest. The old model was stale for Digg and many early Digg users have grown up and moved on. Other services like Twitter and Facebook have passed Digg for news sharing supremacy in a short amount of time.

For Digg to start to add more cylinders (or is it batteries?) to their engine, they needed a freshness overhaul. Two years ago I wondered if Digg was looking to be acquired by a media outlet. I think the new version positions Digg as a good acquisition target for a media service like Comcast.

In just a week, all of the major tech blogs are pumping Digg bigtime – something that hasn’t been seen since Twitter launched their first buttons and blogs pushed their Digg buttons to the recycle bin. This renewed publisher interest is exactly what Digg needs again – they need visibility and inbound (non-Google) traffic.

Would Digg feel a big hit if all of the top Digg users left the site permanently? With the new auto-generated RSS feed option that most of the popular blogs are using to feed ALL of their stories (even sponsor thank you messages), the “discovery” model isn’t as important anymore.

What I find interesting is that today the company announced some algorithm changes and it sure looks like we are back to the old “ars and wired” dominated home page. What is shocking is that there have been close to zero non-tech stories to hit the new homepage since the launch. I mean don’t the New York Yankees deserve some frontpage love?

I am not sold that this new Digg will be able to significantly increase their userbase because for a user to be excited about Digg, their friends and sources also need to be using the service. And the average Internet user already talks to their friends and gets their news via a variety of other popular social networking services. I do, however, strongly believe that Digg will increase their traffic from a larger percentage of their current userbase. People who haven’t used Digg in years will stop by after being hammered on a blog which pumps Digg. These users will contribute heavily to the growth of Digg and what I believe will be an eventual sale within the next 18-24 months.

The newly-hired CEO sure does have his work cut out for him! Does Digg move forward and ignore the screaming of their most passionate users? Or does Digg do what a small but most engaged set of users want right now?

Who Moved My Cheese?

Since the new Digg version 4 site went live, I’ve spoken with several top Digg users about the changes. And over the years I’ve spoken to many of Digg’s top users. One thing seems to always come up in nearly all of the discussions…that is the user is getting some sort of benefit for driving traffic to stories. Typically that benefit isn’t direct cash payments as I believe that’s banned by Digg. But many of the top digg users provide “consulting” services which include traffic and link generation.

If these “consultants” are used to going to their one location for quick huge traffic bursts, now that the cheese is gone, is this the reason why so many Digg users are outraged that a few blogs owned the home page? While there have apparently been changes to the algorithm so that one source can’t own the home page, will the cheese ever return for this set of consultants?

Etc

As a side note, I mentioned on Twitter last night that it would be awesome if the blogs that benefited from the busted algorithm donated the extra ad dollars they earned to a worthy tech cause. I doubt anyone will step up- but wanted to throw it out there as a suggestion.

Find more stories about: community, Digg

Earlier this week I sat down with Girl Ambition co-founder Hilary DeCesare. The service is launching to the public today and I was able to capture our interview on video below. Hilary describes the service as, “Girl Ambition includes an inspirational online show, games, contests and other activities that promote self-esteem and teach on-line safety”. The real goal is to help tween girls (ages 9-13) feel better about themselves.

The site also offers video hosting and chat/IM. In our discussion, we talk about what makes Girl Ambition different than Club Penguin, what about boys?, how the email service works and online safety. The site also offers information for parents. I wonder if they should explore creating a desktop/Adobe Air application that could make sure the child can’t get out to the full Internet and only live within the Girl Ambition service.

Hilary also noted that MySpace deletes 25,000 profiles a day due to underage use.

Girl Ambition is launching with a multi-faceted business model. Account access is $4.95/month and they also are partnering with a variety of companies on content and sponsorships. I think there’s also a great opportunity for brands to leverage the community for focus groups and product learnings. The company is looking to raise a round of funding currently.

We covered the launch of another niche community last summer named SavvyAuntie. Both SavvyAuntie and Girl Ambition have business models and communities that are supportive and encourage heavy usage. Perhaps Hilary and SavvyAuntie founder Melanie Notkin should partner as there could be some good crossover traffic.

apologies for the sound, the cafe was quiet before we started then the staff decided to prepare for lunch!

Find more stories about: community, Girl Ambition, Interviews, Quick News, SavvyAuntie, Video, women

We covered the new aunt-community SavvyAuntie when it launched earlier this month. SavvyAuntie reminds me of Dogster in that both are very niche in their user demographic but drive very passionate, loyal users. To learn more about SavvyAuntie, I headed over to their headquarters in NYC and met with founder and Auntrepreneur Melanie Notkin.

Some of the topics we discussed in the video interview below are:

• Who is Melanie Notkin
• What’s SavvyAuntie all about
• What types of content are on SavvyAuntie
• What are you doing to make sure that members who signed up in the initial press buzz continue to remain active in the community
• What’s the business plan
• How do you effectively use your blog to drive traffic but more importantly share your expertise
• Long or Short? (stolen from Wallstrip) Twitter, iPhone, Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, Hulu

Melanie says you can follow her on Twitter and she will follow you back unless you tell her that you are looking for a girlfriend – she blocks those people. Thanks Melanie for the time this morning learning about SavvyAuntie!

Find more stories about: community, Interviews, NYC, SavvyAuntie, Social Networking, women

I was checking out on of my favorite blogs this evening.. that is the one of Chris Messina… and he had a review of BarCamp Portland. In the review he discusses a new comprehensive communications tool (CCT) called Pibb. Now I remember Pibb. My roomate in college loved Mr. Pibb. Oh boy he drank that soda day and night!

Anyway, back to this new Pibb. I have played with this for a bit now and am really impressed. I love the multi-threaded discussions. Pibb is built using the GWT (Google Web Toolkit). This tool looks like a great way to communicate as a team. You can invite people to your Pibb Channel. I could see using this for a new product launch and having multiple streams of discussion within the channel. What's great is that then the tech team can see what's going on in marketing and vice-versa.

I guess I think of it as a very fancy IRC plus a top notch message board.

Chris notes one issue, "Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like there are permalinks available for the transcripts, but I’ve put in a request to the developers who were on-site for such a feature."

And I have one item that I think will hinder their ability to grow quickly/exponentially. It's the forced OpenID requirement. Yes, OpenID is growing, we have it as an option on CN for login. But it should be just that for now. An option. Don't force it on the average non-geeks unless you only want your app to be geek-friendly. Eventually OpenId might become the standard protocol for login services, but for now, offer me a choice.

Update: Chris sent over this quote regarding the OpenID after reading the above, "This app, and the other JanRain projects, are important in that they dispense with archaic siloed user accounts and require the use of the decentralized OpenID authentication system. We'll probably start to see more of this, as we have on AOL's Ficlets."

Here is a screenshot from the BarCamp Channel (Chris has some additional screenshots on Flickr):

Find more stories about: chat, community, Pibb, Reviews

Earlier this week, GrandCentral celebrated their one year anniversary of their Project CARE program in San Francisco. The program gives voicemail accounts to homeless people in San Francisco and to-date they have given over 400,000 voicemail messages out. I have no idea how much this costs GrandCentral but it's a great service. With more and more cities removing payphones, this service becomes even more critical.

Craig, GrandCentral CEO notes, "The government can throw tons of money and resources at the homeless problem by providing housing, job training, medical care, etc., but if there’s no way to contact a person to let them know they got the job, or the room became available, or the TB test came back negative, then that money is MUCH less effective than it could be."

I have been in many cities in the U.S. and in Europe and I don't think any city has a worse homeless problem than S.F. It is great to see a startup doing what a big company could have been doing for years. Think about ways you can help your community.

Hats off to Craig and the team! If you want to learn more about GrandCentral, check out my interview from late 2006.

Find more stories about: community, Grand Central, GrandCentral, Quick News

Earlier today Wetpaint announced that they have added the ability for private messaging for their Wiki clients. Now, PBwiki has announced that they have partnered with YackPack to provide a new widget for their Wiki clients called WalkieTalkie.

YackPack has created the WalkieTalkie, a widget that you can install on your PBwiki in about two minutes. Then, each and every human or humanoid who visits that PBwiki of yours can simply click-and-hold the YackPack button and, through the miracle of “Technology,” talk to anyone else visiting the page. It’s like an online virtual intercom and it adds the power of voice to any collaboration.

“There is something magical about hearing someone else's voice,” said Ramit Sethi, PBwiki co-founder. “It takes collaboration to an entirely different level. It's more personal and takes away the OMG FLAMER LAMO stuff that you see on IRC. It brings people closer together.”

With these communication changes, I stand firm that 2007 is more Wiki than Mashup. Of course neither of these tools, Wepaint nor PBwiki are available for install on your server, but only as an ASP model. As I noted to Ben from Wetpaint, they should package it up and offer it for a nominal fee. Just look at Vbulletin for a great example of how this can work.

Find more stories about: community, PBwiki, Quick News, wiki

SoloSEO has launched a variety of new tools to help maximize your MyBlogLog experience. SoloSEO notes, "Our tools go beyond the basic searching and browsing available at MyBlogLog by relying on the networks created between MyBlogLog users and Blog communities." 

The tools include:

• Compare Blog Visitors – want to see if there is overlap between CN and Mash? What about x and y? I like this because you can see which visitors hit your site plus your top competition
• Compare Your Contacts – see which contacts you have in common with other contacts from the same blog
• Compare Community Members – similar to the Compare Blog Visitors above, here they compare the people who have favorited a community with another favorited community
• Common Communities between Contacts – see what other communities your contacts have in common and add them to your list
• Show All Visitors – this tool shows you 6x more visitors than the MBL widget does. Tres cool!
• Add Missing Contacts – find and add missing contacts to your MBL contact list

This is a great example of taking a tool and creating added value from it. Great job SoloSEO!

Find more stories about: community, mybloglog, Quick News