Digg to make the DiggBar an opt-in experience

In response to a wash of negative user and media feedback, Digg is making a few key changes to the DiggBar, the company's URL shortening and Web page-framing service.

Within the next week Digg is turning off the DiggBar for all of its unregistered users, who will be sent directly to each site's main page without the DiggBar or a shortened link--just like it was before the DiggBar even existed. Additionally, for those who are registered with Digg, there will be an option to turn it back on or off on a permanent basis.

Despite the backlash, Digg's vice president of engineering continues to push that the DiggBar's done good things for both Digg and the sites it's linking to. In a company blog post on the upcoming changes, he notes that "roughly 45 percent of all Digging activity is now happening on the DiggBar," which means users are placing their votes off Digg's main site. Quinn also notes that a quarter of the users are using the DiggBar's related stories feature (which also appears on Digg's main site) along with a 10 percent increase in the number of shared, shortened DiggURLs.

Quinn also said that some of the things Digg has learned from the DiggBar will be put to use in the company's browser extensions, which means we could see the random Digg story link, and the number of page views a story has received inside of Digg's Firefox Toolbar.

[ghostfear]

thanks God, I was thinking of stop using their site for this reason. Whoever thought of the idea should be fired.

[unknown unknown]

I asked them to just delete my account, something I should have done long ago.

[Josh.Lowensohn]

Really? What's the harm of just abandoning it?

[Mereo1]

Reply to:Josh.Lowensohn

I think he wants to send them a message.

[unknown unknown]

@Mereo1 exactly.

[unknown unknown]

To elaborate, after Facebook's previous redesign (not the current Twitteresque one) people complained and Zuckerburg or one of the executives at Facebook said something to the effect of, "Users complain but no one is disabling their account over it". If one just abandons account they probably probably won't connect the dots. If it's clear that change is costing them user and ad revenue they're more likely to do something.

[Dalkorian]

I'm not a frequent visitor to Digg's site, but I had enjoyed it occasionally. I was doing that the other day when I clicked a link to an article - and BAM! There's the DiggBar on my browser, slapping me in the face. I couldn't close that tab fast enough!

I doubt I would have ever returned to Digg if they hadn't done turned this off for unregistered users - in fact I still might not. The DiggBar is an affront to the web - hijacking websites through frames angered people back in the 1990's when it was conceived, what made Digg think it would be accepted today?