[pm_41]

So last night, I checked my e-mail to find out that I've gotten into the Digg v4 Alpha. For those of you who don't know what Digg is, allow me to explain. Digg is a social networking site for finding news stories and interesting web content submitted by its members (and quite possibly some of your friends). In a nutshell, it's like Facebook and Twitter, but just for news. (No "OMG I'm tweeting about something that's totally irrelevant to the news story you're looking for!" or big news corporation TV ratings-boosting analysis related stuff.)

A few months back, Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg, announced a complete refresh for the site (since the current version, V3, hasn't been updated much since 2006). He announced a completely new look and feel for Digg, as well as several new features.

Here is the YouTube video he posted announcing all of the new stuff:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9rc-Ou6814"]http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Y9rc-Ou6814[/url]

And here's a comparison screenshot of Digg v3 (the current Digg):





As you can see, Digg v4 is a big improvement. But is it all good? That's what we're about to find out!


The Good

• When you first log into the new Digg, you are presented with a list of recommended people/news agencies to follow. Also, you now have the option to follow friends from Facebook and Twitter, as well as follow people in your Gmail contacts list.

• The interface has been completely redesigned. Looks very pretty.

• The new Digg is much easier to navigate.

The Bad

• The interface sometimes has trouble displaying user avatars.

• I couldn't Digg anything. (I got an error whenever I tried to Digg something in my Latest News stream.)

• It can be glitchy at times.

• NOTE: Digg 4 is ALPHA. They're still working out the bugs.

In conclusion, Digg 4 is a large leap forward from the previous Digg. It has took the social element that Digg is famous for to a whole new level. Although it has some bugs and glitches now, most of them should be gone by the time it goes public. In the meantime, it's alive and kicking well.

FINAL SCORE: 7.4 / 10

[Steve]

What's your account, I'll add you as a friend.

[pm_41]

Steve, on 09 July 2010 - 09:47 PM, said:

What's your account, I'll add you as a friend.

I'm dabockster on there. (although I never really used Digg before i got access to v4...)

[Steve]

I started to use it more recently to find out new news. Good way to find out what the popular stories are.

[pepo]

I like it, although I've bookmarked to the top stories page instead of the home page where it's supposed to show stories submitted from friends and publications you follow. Digg to me has always been about the random popular stories, so I'm not that big of a fan of the new home page, but no biggie since the top stories page still exists.

It's definitely faster, when opening the source pages there isn't a Digg bar anymore, which is good, and it looks and feels more organized, but then of course the final version will be run over with flash ads. One thing I don't like is that comments are all expanded by default, this means that the first few comments will get a ton of replies, and it's replies will get a ton of replies, stealing the thunder from other original comments since everyone will focus on the first few, and it will look like a mess, Engadget anyone. All comments should be collapsed by default!!! That is my only complaint really.

[Steve]

pepo, on 11 July 2010 - 04:20 AM, said:

I like it, although I've bookmarked to the top stories page instead of the home page where it's supposed to show stories submitted from friends and publications you follow.

Exactly what I've done as well.