'Net Features : social bookmarking

A Brief History of Digg

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 23:00:00 GMT

It was announced last week that Digg.com, the once powerful and influential social bookmarking service, has sold to BetaWorks for $500,000 U.S.

Whether you see it as a fall from grace, or are excited by the re-launch of the platform in early August 2012, exploring this history of what was once such an important property serves anyone in pursuit of Web success very, very well.

Below you'll find some of the highlights of Digg's history, but if we missed one, do let us know by commenting below.

Kevin Rose, Owen Byrne, Ron Gorodetsky and Jay Adelson started Digg in 2004 with a $6,000 investment from Rose.

The name “Digg” was chosen because Dig.com was already registered by the Walt Disney Internet Group.

Launched in stealthy beta in April 2005. The site rapidly picks up steam in late 2005 starting in October.

Adelson took the position of CEO in February 2005.

In mid June 2006, with roughly 300,000 registered users, the site expanded to include different areas of content - not just technology and gaming.

Digg gains widespread attention by publicly exposing a 16-digit code that could be used to crack the anti-copying technology on HD-DVDs.

Digg opened their API to the public in April 2007, which allowed developers to write tools and apps based on Digg’s data.

In July 2007, Microsoft was selected as the exclusive provider of display and contextual advertising in a three year agreement. The site was receiving 17 million visitors per month.

September 2008, Digg took a new 28.7 million round in funding, in the face of numerous clones including Yahoo's Buzz which lasted a brief 18 months.

Digg unveiled its Diggbar in April 2009. The tool kept all traffic on Digg, to the chagrin of publishers, and received a less than enthusiastic response from public.

In 2009 Digg integrated with Facebook Connect, which allowed users to sign in and participate with Digg posts through their Facebook accounts.

The company launched Digg Ads in August 2009, which were stories that were submitted by advertisers that also included Dig and Bury buttons.

In 2010 Digg launched an iPhone app and shortly after launched an Android app. While the iOS app is still available today, currently there is no Digg App for Android devices.

Adelson left Digg in April 2010, and shortly after Kevin Rose became CEO.

Digg Kills the DiggBar in April of 2010, and unbanned domains it had previously prevented from participating.

One month later in May 2010, Digg announced a 10 percent layoff. A few short days later, Website Magazine publishes "Digg is Deadd" to great fanfare... on Reddit.

Digg Went back to work, released a new Digg in August of 2010. Digg then hired a former Amazon Executive as CEO. (In September 2010, Rose was replaced as CEO by Matt Williams, who is a former general manager of consumer payments at Amazon.

On March 18, 2011, Rose resigned from his position at Digg. He currently works at Google Ventures.)

In October 2010, Digg slashed its staff by over one-third.

Digg, not done yet, launches a site overhaul and redesign in February 2011, following that with the release of Newsrooms in September 2011.

In July 2012, Digg was sold. According to various reports the Digg brand, website and technology were sold to Betaworks, while 15 staff members were transferred to the Washington Post's SocialCode project and a suite of patents were sold to LinkedIn.

Delicious Introduces Twitter Connector

Linc Wonham — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 23:00:00 GMT

Social bookmarking site Delicious has announced an integration with Twitter that enables users to connect the two accounts to one another – allowing them to save any links from Twitter and add them to their profiles on Delicious.

The following is from the announcement on the Delicious blog:

The new Twitter Connector on Delicious gives you the option of tethering your accounts together, so any link you tweet, retweet or favorite on Twitter is also saved to Delicious. (Note to web speed junkies: sometimes the link-saving process can take a few minutes or more, depending on system demands, so be patient!)

Here are some features and benefits of the Twitter Connector:

• Every link you’ve shared via Twitter in the past (up to the last 3,200) will be imported into your Delicious account. (Delicious will ignore any duplicates)

• You can choose a link-saving protocol for future tweets, including a) saving each link from Twitter going forward; b) saving just the links in tweets hashtagged with #d; c) saving every link except those hashtagged with #d.

• You get to assign your own Delicious tag to every link coming from Twitter, and any hashtag included in your tweets (aside from #d) will be converted to unique tags on Delicious.

• Multiple Twitter accounts can be set up, each with their own discreet settings and preferences.

How Appetizing is the New Delicious?

Linc Wonham — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 22:00:00 GMT

When Delicious was acquired earlier in the year by the co-founders of YouTube, essentially rescuing a once-popular startup from a potentially disastrous affiliation with Yahoo, promise filled the hearts of users of the social bookmarking site. The updated website has now officially relaunched with numerous new features, and the reviews are starting to come in.

Among the new features are stacked bookmarks, enhanced imagery and increased sharing and saving functionalities. Saving links on Delicious makes it easier to find and share an assortment of Web content with friends and associates, and users simply have to add a bookmarklet to their browser toolbar or click “save” next to any desired link or stack.

A stack is a collection of links built around a common theme, and users can visit the “stack” tab on their profile pages and click “create stack” to get started. After choosing at least three links, adding descriptions and images, choosing a layout and assigning the order of links, users simply have to click “publish” to share the stack with others.

Browsing through stacks allows users to explore and share the content they find most interesting on the Web, but not everyone is delighted with the new Delicious. Many users have already complained about the not-so-seamless transfer of accounts from the old site to the new one, and others have expressed concern over their inability to manage their old tags under the new system.

The good news for users is that most of the new features continue to be under development and that Delicious has all but promised newer features still that have not yet been revealed. The first couple of days of the transition have been rocky to say the least, but almost all can agree that a newly operational site is an improvement over the near-death experience that Delicious experienced under the guidance of Yahoo.

WordPress Wednesday: Top 3 Social Media Plugins

Michael Garrity — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 18:00:00 GMT

It's hard to deny the power that social media plays in the general makeup of the Internet. As part of running your site, you are going to want to connect to the Web-based world around you.

One problem with WordPress, however, is that it doesn't immediately provide users with a way to include bookmarks to the biggest social networking sites on your blog. If you're trying to promote a business or market yourself on the Web, you need to be a part of social media and you need to start as soon as possible.

So, if you're going to use a WordPress platform to create your site, your best bet would be to download one (or more) social media-specific plugins to help get your social engagement off the ground. Here are three to consider:

Sociable
This plugin is all about using social bookmarking to generate traffic. Sociable will automatically add links to your favorite social bookmarking sites on all of your posts and pages, as well as into your RSS feed. It allows you to choose from 99 different social bookmarking sites, such as Twitter, StumbleUpon and Digg. What's really helpful is that Sociable allows for easy bookmarking in any browser, so it is very user-friendly. It also gives you an email tab and is easily integrated with Google Analytics. This is a very popular plugin tool with many WordPress users.

I Love Social Bookmarking
The designers of this plugin really went for it with that title, didn't they? What really sets this particular tool apart is that it lets users vote on your blog posts using a drop down menu that allows them to select which social media site they will vote from, keeping less icons on your blog and eliminating clutter. The goal is simplicity, for the site owner and their readers. According to the site, they want I Love Social Bookmarking "to run with minimal system resources, and to look good whilst she’s at it." They accomplish this by making it very easy to customize.

Share This
This is another vote-based social media plugin, only Share This lets you choose which particular sites you want to target and then has readers vote for you using the plugin. Essentially, it's job is to provide an unobtrusive way for visitors to post your content to social bookmarking sites or send an email link to a friend. Again, it's highly customizable, allowing you to change its colors to match your website. Also, it provides you with tracking reports, which is a feature many social plugins lack.

For more information about WordPress plugins, check out WordPress Plugins from A to Z.

Yahoo Launches Delicious 2.0

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:16:00 GMT

Yahoo has revamped its popular social bookmarking site Del.icio.us, rebranding it as simply Delicious.com.

Yahoo claims the new site is faster (thanks to an upgrade of its server system) and easier for users to store, describe, and share information among the 5 million Delicious users. Other changes include those to the length of descriptions. Delicious users in the past were limited to just 255 character to define their submissions but it has now been raised to 1,000 characters. If you don't have a Delicious account, definitely sign up today and test the new version. It's a great way to find noteworthy content and network with your peers.