Why Don't I Use One Of My Favorite Websites Anymore? Poor Digg.com

Digg is a site where users can submit news stories that other users can vote up or down. The stories with the highest votes get pushed to the front page of the site. Because stories had no be manually submitted, it cut down on the power of major publishers. In a world before Twitter and excessive Facebook status news sharing (2004), this was the best way to get a sense of the news that people found important. So why don't I use it anymore?

I no longer use Digg because it has become a bloated mess after Digg's latest revision last year. What was once a front page driven by users (though some did admittedly game the system, like Mr. Babyman) became a dominated by major news publishers who were allowed to automatically submit content to the site. Digg became one huge RSS reader - one that purported to be the view of the community. Meanwhile, sharing news links via Twitter and Facebook became the new social currency.I can safely says that I find out about breaking news (like today's acquisition of T-Mobile USA by AT&T) from one of these means quickly.

Digg fell behind the times. Since Digg's founder Kevin Rose resigned in the last few days, there has been a flood of news coverage on Digg. In particular, Sara Lacy wrote a great Techcrunch piece on what Digg meant to the San Francisco tech community. It's a shame to see Digg fall apart in shambles and die as a former shell of itself, but that's what happens if you don't continue to evolve your product with the market.

The Moon Was Huge Last Night!

It was hard to miss the size of the moon last night! I was driving to the bowling alley in my latest attempt to break 100 and had a great view of the moonlight. While I couldn't snap a picture from behind the wheel, I've included a great shot from NASA. Their description is below:
The full moon is seen as it rises near the Lincoln Memorial, Saturday, March 19, 2011, in Washington. The full moon tonight is called a super perigee moon since it is at its closest to Earth in 2011. The last full moon so big and close to Earth occurred in March 1993. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

The Wheels On The Bus Go Round and Round

Google, don't even waste your time with Google Circles, the social network that ReadWriteWeb reports is coming soon. Just let Facebook have the social networking space.

I'm worried that Google won't be able to turn away from the money and try to make Circles into a full fledged Facebook copy. Yes, Google does have the advantage of knowing damn near everything about via search, but how can that be used in a Facebook-like environment tha thrives off of existing relationships? It makes more sense in a Twitter-like atmosphere, where you don't have to have an existing personal relationship with our followers, but we all saw Buzz flop horribly.

The stumbles of Buzz, Wave (remember that?), and Profiles (checked yours lately and made sure it was up to date? Of course not ...) show that Google is best at the engineering technical side of the web. Their algorithm is so good that Bing allegedly leeches it.

Google, please stick to your strengths. Work out a deal with Facebook if you want to participate in the social sphere. Remember, Jack is watching you ... do you want to be kicked out of the circle of trust?

Or maybe end up like Jinx in the toilet.

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The Wall

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One of the big discussions in the tech community has always been having an open source environment where anything goes, versus a closed environment where only filtered content is available. This discussion has recently manifested in the smartphone wars, with the open Google Android operating system vs the closed Apple iOS ("the walled garden"). TechCrunch has a great article covering the success of closed systems, stating that "the walled garden has won".

Giving all that power and control to Amazon, Apple, Google and Intel in exchange for security may ultimately be a reasonable and necessary tradeoff — but that kind of centralization of control still makes me more than a little uneasy.

Geeks hate control. We have the smarts, and we'd rather monitor and moderate ourselves. But that's just not going to work for the other 90% of the population.

My dream is that technology is regarded as an essential part of our society, which goes beyond people buying iPhones. Having a curated experience helps people of all generations to feel comfortable with technology without drowning in nonstop choices. People need a nudge in the right direction, just like they do with supermarket circulars, Amazon recommendations, and film reviews. It's the reason why it's easy to buy an iOS device and get the full experience by following the recommendations.

Part of it is a power play. The more open the environment, the more us geeks are in control. Because there are a sea of choices, we are the ones that hold the key to making sense of it all. In a closed environment such as iOS, people are fed suggestions based on what Apple highlights on the site, as well as "top 10" lists. Even though these can be gamed, people are not going to use something if it doesn't work for them. This is the benefit of the closed model - it is heavy on suggesting things to do, but it doesn't force the user to agree. Essentially, it reduces that amount of choices that the average person has to make.

Here's to the success of the wall - the more people engaged by tech, the more tech will be able to innovate. Let's keep the snowball rolling!