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In a recently released article by TechCrunch, they discussed the return of Digg by Kevin Rose, Alexis Ohanian, who have now acquired Digg.
When TechCrunch asked them why they decided to bring Digg back, here’s what they had to say:
So why now? It’s a combination of reasons, according to Rose, who says that the existing social media landscape has become toxic, messy, and riddled with misinformation — and AI is well-placed to address that. Just the “out of the box stuff” is “insane,” Rose observes, noting there are “Google endpoints already where I don’t even have to mess with a model at all, where I can get sub 200 millisecond response times on any comment under about 300 characters and rated across 20 plus different vectors of of sentiment, so violence, toxicity, hate speech — you name it. Like, that just wasn’t possible five years ago.”
More broadly, says Rose, “We’re at this other inflection point around AI and what it can do. And when you think about these big shifts, they require you to go and step back and revisit first principles and think about how you might change [a business] from the ground up, and that’s what Alexis and I and Justin [Mezzell],” who is a longtime collaborator of Rose and now Digg’s CEO, will be doing, he said.
Ohanian echoes Rose’s sentiments in a press release about the new Digg. “Online communities thrive when there’s a balance between technology and human judgment,” he said. “We’re bringing Digg back to ensure that balance exists. Kevin and I are here to build something better than what social platforms are offering today. AI should handle the grunt work in the background while humans focus on what they do best: building real connections.”
Ohanian, for his part, has dipped in and out of Reddit over time. He first left the company in 2009 before returning as its chairman in 2014 and then stepped down from the boardaltogether in 2020.
Both Rose and Ohanian have invested in other companies through the years, both as individuals and through institutional funds. Just this week, Ohanian joined Frank McCourt’s bid to buy TikTok’s U.S. business.
Their parallel paths as investors have now converged, with True Ventures, where Rose as a general partner, and Ohanian’s venture firm Seven Seven Six, both investing in Digg.
While Mezzell, a veteran product designer, will lead the company’s day-to-day operations, Rose will serve as Digg’s chairperson and adviser, and Ohanian will sit on the board.
A new version of the Digg platform is launching soon. Invites will be rolled out in the coming weeks. In the meantime, noted Rose, there is now a landing page that allows people to input their email.
“Then there will be kind of a first come, first served [system] for user name picking and things of that nature,” says Rose. “We’re not spammers,” he continues. “We’re not going to sign you up to some crazy weekly digest or some s—. If you just go over there and input it in your credentials — your email — then we’ll just let you know when it’s live, and you can come grab a user name, kick the tires, tell us where we’re messing up, and and we promise to fast follow and fix all that stuff.”
Even then, says Rose, don’t expect too much straightaway. Turnarounds take time.
“Where we’re really going is, a year, year and a half from now, is when you come to Digg, it’s going to be very much more like the leap that happened to Figma, where it’s free form, it’s dynamic, it’s an interface that is unlike any other that you’ve seen,” says Rose. “It’s not your old-school forums.”
What are your thoughts on the upcoming return of Digg? Will you be using the platform once it comes back?
What happened to Digg in the past?
Digg used to be quite popular back in the day, it also paved the way for Reddit. There was one point in time where Digg was bigger than Reddit and they eventually became the successor to Digg. Users moved to Reddit once Digg released (v4) changed up their UI and algorithm systems.
d3.harvard.edu
It’ll be interesting to see how this all pans out in the end and if they’ll be able to rebuild the platform to their former glory, but I know I’ll be using the forum once it comes back.
Digg was a lively place and a great community when it was around years ago.
When TechCrunch asked them why they decided to bring Digg back, here’s what they had to say:
So why now? It’s a combination of reasons, according to Rose, who says that the existing social media landscape has become toxic, messy, and riddled with misinformation — and AI is well-placed to address that. Just the “out of the box stuff” is “insane,” Rose observes, noting there are “Google endpoints already where I don’t even have to mess with a model at all, where I can get sub 200 millisecond response times on any comment under about 300 characters and rated across 20 plus different vectors of of sentiment, so violence, toxicity, hate speech — you name it. Like, that just wasn’t possible five years ago.”
More broadly, says Rose, “We’re at this other inflection point around AI and what it can do. And when you think about these big shifts, they require you to go and step back and revisit first principles and think about how you might change [a business] from the ground up, and that’s what Alexis and I and Justin [Mezzell],” who is a longtime collaborator of Rose and now Digg’s CEO, will be doing, he said.
Ohanian echoes Rose’s sentiments in a press release about the new Digg. “Online communities thrive when there’s a balance between technology and human judgment,” he said. “We’re bringing Digg back to ensure that balance exists. Kevin and I are here to build something better than what social platforms are offering today. AI should handle the grunt work in the background while humans focus on what they do best: building real connections.”
Ohanian, for his part, has dipped in and out of Reddit over time. He first left the company in 2009 before returning as its chairman in 2014 and then stepped down from the boardaltogether in 2020.
Both Rose and Ohanian have invested in other companies through the years, both as individuals and through institutional funds. Just this week, Ohanian joined Frank McCourt’s bid to buy TikTok’s U.S. business.
Their parallel paths as investors have now converged, with True Ventures, where Rose as a general partner, and Ohanian’s venture firm Seven Seven Six, both investing in Digg.
While Mezzell, a veteran product designer, will lead the company’s day-to-day operations, Rose will serve as Digg’s chairperson and adviser, and Ohanian will sit on the board.
A new version of the Digg platform is launching soon. Invites will be rolled out in the coming weeks. In the meantime, noted Rose, there is now a landing page that allows people to input their email.
“Then there will be kind of a first come, first served [system] for user name picking and things of that nature,” says Rose. “We’re not spammers,” he continues. “We’re not going to sign you up to some crazy weekly digest or some s—. If you just go over there and input it in your credentials — your email — then we’ll just let you know when it’s live, and you can come grab a user name, kick the tires, tell us where we’re messing up, and and we promise to fast follow and fix all that stuff.”
Even then, says Rose, don’t expect too much straightaway. Turnarounds take time.
“Where we’re really going is, a year, year and a half from now, is when you come to Digg, it’s going to be very much more like the leap that happened to Figma, where it’s free form, it’s dynamic, it’s an interface that is unlike any other that you’ve seen,” says Rose. “It’s not your old-school forums.”
What are your thoughts on the upcoming return of Digg? Will you be using the platform once it comes back?
What happened to Digg in the past?
Digg used to be quite popular back in the day, it also paved the way for Reddit. There was one point in time where Digg was bigger than Reddit and they eventually became the successor to Digg. Users moved to Reddit once Digg released (v4) changed up their UI and algorithm systems.
The Demise of Digg: How an Online Giant Lost Control of the Digital Crowd - Digital Innovation and Transformation
Digg's inability to prevent fraudulent voting allowed power users to take control of the site's content and undermined its mission to produce democratized news.
d3.harvard.edu
It’ll be interesting to see how this all pans out in the end and if they’ll be able to rebuild the platform to their former glory, but I know I’ll be using the forum once it comes back.
Digg was a lively place and a great community when it was around years ago.
