The biggest social bookmarking website in the world, Digg, made a major change to its entire functionality this week.  Other social bookmarking websites, including Zoomit, will be watching closely what happens next.

 

In case you missed it, Digg removed the “shout” features. Despite what you might read elsewhere, there were actually two distinct shout features, both of which were removed:

 

• Share a story with up to about 100 of those people following you.
• Shout to a single user about anything at all, “How’s it going?”  “I have a new IM.” Got anything for me to Digg?” Interestingly, this change is not mentioned on the Digg blog.

 

The first shout feature was replaced by a share on Twitter, FaceBook and email.  The second feature was simply removed.

 

At first blush, removing the shout features seems ludicrous. Digg seems to be taking a step backward toward less functionality.  And as the web gets more social, Digg gets less social.  Zoomit does not yet have a way to communicate amongst members, but  we do plan to include one (Anyone have a lead on some VC help?) 

 

So we find ourselves asking, “why?”

 

There are at least four reasons cited for Digg’s change:

 

• The first shout system was sometimes used for spamming other Digg users by sending several items for digging, over and over.  While a little annoying, very few users did this, and those that did could easily be unfriended.  Generally, it never got more irritating than someone sending the same link 3 times during a 24-hour period. It is unlikely this was the motivation behind the changes.
• Some users also felt the shout system was used between power diggers to make sure they got enough votes for their submissions to make the front page.  This was most likely the main concern.  Regular users were feeling shut out and Digg rightly sought to rectify this.
• Adding the Twitter and FaceBook links would also be a way of exposing Digg to so many non-Digg users.  Whenever a Digg user tweets an item on Digg, all his followers on Twitter would see it, not just his Digg friends.  Smart thinking.
• Removing shouts saves bandwidth.

 

Although we will be watching closely what happens next, we do have some early observations.

 

• Shouts have not ended, they have just been sent off-site.  This is not a good thing.  A social website that requires people to go elsewhere to communicate forfeits some of its users.  I am sure Digg will not lose too many, but it will lose some.
• The small spamming problem for Digg is over.  The big spamming problem for Twitter has just begun.
• Inequality between power diggers and regular users on Digg has ended, but…  The power diggers are already creating offsite networks like DiggShout and Twibes where regular users will be effectively shut out.  That one could backfire on Digg.
• The Twitter/FaceBook/Email function is a good one.  Smart move, Digg.  Zoomit will do this, too.
• Saving bandwidth is not worth losing some users and giving too much power to those heavy users who stay, in our opinion (and we are not sure if this was ever really a consideration).

 

Did Digg have alternatives?  We think so.

 

• Adding the Twitter and FaceBook sharing could have been done with or without other changes.
• One-on-one shouts should have been retained, and Digg still can (hopefully) put them back.
• Share-a-story shouts could have been limited to, say, 25 at a time.
• Share-a-story shouts could have been limited to, say, once per story.
• Share-a-story shouts could have been limited to, say, once per hour or three times per day.
• Share-a-story shouts could have been limited to, say, a total of 100 person-shouts per day.
• All shouts could have been limited to, say, a total of 100 person-shouts per day.
• Any combination of these options (replacing these arbitrary numbers with whatever works best for Digg)

 

Watching Digg and its users’ reactions (so far) has given us the chance to reflect on what will work best for Zoomit when we get the chance to address sharing.  Thank you, Digg.

Tags: digg, facebook, sharing, shouts, spam, twitter, zoomit

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 8:49 am and is filed under development, social bookmarking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.