digg

Social news site Digg.com is set to launch the fourth major iteration of its site. Last week the company invited an extra 20,000 users to its version four alpha test--a number that is likely to grow in the coming days and weeks.

Given a tumultuous past few months for the company, which has seen a leadership shake-up at its very highest levels, and what insiders have described as an "exodus" of key employees, version four is more than just a redesign--it's effectively a reboot of the Digg brand.

The most obvious question is whether this new version of the site, which has been teased by the company for the past year, is truly better. The answer is a resounding yes. It's faster, cleaner, and easier to both Digg stories up, as well as submit them. It also does a much better job at filtering the large number of submitted stories by their source. But even with those improvements, Digg feels like the same site it was a few years ago, which will likely do little to silence the site's critics.

A short history lessonHow long has it been since the last major Digg revision? Try June 2006, which is when version three was announced at a bar party, then publicly launched a few months later. Back then, the biggest new feature was the inclusion of video and podcasting content that could play right on Digg story pages. These two additions were brought on as separate sections of the site--both of which would later be consolidated into just a video section when the site added an image category. Digg version 3 also brought a face lift that would let users customize what categories they saw on the front page.

Between then and now, Digg has had a few tune ups, including: • a complete re-write of the site code which ditched MySQL in favor of the more decentralized Cassandra • an overhauled search engine • a framing toolbar called the DiggBar, which drew plenty of controversy in its year or so of existence.

There was also the launch of mobile apps, a user uprising over free speech, and several murmurs of an acquisition.

So what does Digg's fourth version bring to the table? Let's break it down by feature:

New followers/following paradigm, and a social news feed Similar to Twitter and Facebook's fan pages, Digg users can now follow a content source and see when new stories from that particular site have been submitted. Alongside Digg users, you're able to import people from Twitter, Facebook, and Google. This process is actually the first thing users see when logging into the new Digg, though it can be skipped entirely.

The way it works, is that Digg breaks down profiles by category. Each of these categories can be followed or unfollowed, the former of which means new items from these contacts will show up in Digg's new "My News" section. This is simply a listing of the most recent or popular content from sites or people you're following--akin to what you'd get on Facebook's news feed if you were to filter by links only.

How important the new My News page is to Digg is pretty clear based on the fact that it's the default page when visiting Digg.com while logged on. Users actually have to click over to the "Top News" tab of the site to see what unregistered users get. This isn't even something you can change in Digg's drastically simplified user settings panel.

Digg has also added an additional layer of personalization to the site's sidebar, which now populates the top links from people you're following. These are shown in order of how many of your friends Dugg any particular link. And clicking on the story pages themselves shows you those friends in chronological digging order.… Read more

A management shake-up, tepid traffic, and a hyped product revamp that still hasn't seen the light of day: Much has been made, lately, of the woes facing onetime social-news darling Digg.

But even if things turn around after the release of Digg's "Version 4," which will go live later this year following an alpha test that's starting to make the rounds, its launch will give Digg an additional challenge. It's built up an elaborate network of influence and deal making between media companies and "power users" over the years, and the Version … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--With more than 200,000 apps bursting the seams of Apple's App Store, how can developers get their projects to stand out?

That's a common sentiment among those creating apps, and among those looking for quality content for their iPhones and iPads. But to Seth Socolow, himself a developer and businessman, it was the question that inspired what has become one of the hottest tickets on the Bay Area technology scene.

On Tuesday night, Socolow and Dale Larson, his partner in a consulting firm called SF App Studio, hosted the sixth iteration of their app showcase, the … Read more

Facebook's privacy policy promises, in no uncertain terms, that it doesn't "share your information with advertisers without your consent." Only "non-personally identifiable" data, it says, are shared.

But the social-networking site confirmed late Thursday that it has, at least in some circumstances, sent the user name of a Facebook member to its advertising partners. That can be used to glean a person's name, interests, and list of friends.

A Facebook spokesman told CNET that the apparent privacy leak has been fixed.

News of this data sharing, which appeared in the Wall Street Journal … Read more

One month after an executive shakeup that saw the departure of CEO Jay Adelson, social-news site Digg announced that it is laying off around 10 percent of its employees. That amounts, most likely, to fewer than a dozen people.

"This is one of the hardest decisions we've had to make recently but we strongly believe that it is the right decision for the long-term health of the company," founder Kevin Rose, who took over for Adelson, said in an e-mail to employees that was subsequently posted to the company blog. "In order to achieve our goals, … Read more

I gotta say, I'm really proud of this week's Buzz Report--plus, it's extra-large for your enjoyment, at more than 6 minutes long! There's this week's ruling on the FCC's ability to enforce Net neutrality regulations, a little iPad talk (did you know you can take it through airport security and leave it in your bag?), and a little breaking news insert to update you on the big iPhone OS 4.0 announcement (we do in 90 seconds what Steve Jobs does in 90 minutes). And Kevin Rose takes over as Digg's interim … Read more

More big news out of the Digg camp this week. Late Monday, Digg founder (and now interim CEO) Kevin Rose announced via blog post that the company would be "killing" the DiggBar, the iFrame-based content viewer that caused a lion's share of controversy when it was launched this time last year.

Rose criticized the DiggBar's user experience as "inconsistent" and "wonky," and called the feature "bad for the Internet." According to Rose, the company will instead choose to focus on its browser extensions, which offer many of the same features … Read more

Citing an "entrepreneurial calling," longtime Digg CEO Jay Adelson announced Monday that he's resigning his position at the social-news site. Founder and chief architect Kevin Rose, who's been a far more visible face of the company over the years, will be taking over as interim CEO.

"After five years, 40 million users, and an amazing ride, I've decided to step down as CEO of Digg," Adelson, who says he will remain an adviser to the company, wrote in a post on the company blog. "With the new Digg getting ready to launch, … Read more

Digg users with Android devices, who might have been jealous of Digg's recently launched iPhone/iPod app, now have one of their very own.

The good news is that it's free, and has the same, simple interface as its iPhone cousin. The bad news is that it's not packing nearly as many features.

Just like the iPhone app, Digg's Android app, which went live on the Android Marketplace on Friday, offers a quick way to view and sort through stories on Digg.com. Included are tabs for top, recent, and upcoming stories on Digg, as well … Read more