by Aster C. Lilly

Created on: May 27, 2007

Don't like the news? Vote on it!

The UBER-bottom line about digg.com: It's a great example of Web 2.0 and a relevant website today. Bookmark it, love it.

Digg provides a democratic way of selecting your news content.

The way Digg works: Users submit their favorite websites, usually news stories. For example, the current hot news story on digg is "FIREFOX 3.0 PASSES MAJOR MILESTONE". Every article is given a "thumbs-up" or "thumbs-down", articles with the most "thumbs-up" make the front page.

Hence the name "digg"; I dig your website!

Digg.com provides a great deal of news information that you would normally not see on a major news site like Yahoo or MSN. Most of the news on Digg regards "nerdy" topics such as software development or technology news.

Much like the butt-flap on a pair of long-johns, Digg is useful; it provides easy access to news information, democratically proven to be of interest to you.

Digg is fast, too. Mostly all text, not much graphics.

Slap an RSS feed on Digg.com, and you've got hot news topics forever. No, literally; the human concept of forever.

Despite all these benefits, I'll try to take a critical eye to Digg and point out some flaws.

FLAW #1: NEWS OF THE WEIRD

News of the weird is often too prevalent. For example: UFO sited over Lake Michigan, Woman gives birth to 15 babies.

Weird news defeats the purpose of having a democratic dispersal of information. While it may be interesting to read about "MAN EATS HIS OWN FIST", this information is probably NOT HELPFUL.

Demand for weird news is high, hence the diggability of it.

News of the weird gets in the way of more relevant news stories. It's like rubbernecking at the scene of an accident: get out of your car and help, otherwise drive on.

FLAW #2: Redundant Explorations of Technology Trends

While it's nice to know that there are open source operating systems such as Ubuntu out there, Digg.com tends to be VERY REDUNDANT when it comes to esoteric aspects of software development.

While this is not a bad thing per se, the SHEER AMOUNT of Digg articles regarding Ubuntu is a ridiculous waste of time.

Who cares about kernels and .ASP trees and XML manifestations?

Every redundant digg article is tantamount to preaching to the choir: it narrows the audience; thusly it hurts the democratic aspect of digg.

FLAW #3: Opinion Is Truth

To quote Stephen Colbert: "Truthiness, copyright."

Face it, people are prone to propaganda. Anytime you have a news outlet, you have the opportunity for the abuse of that news outlet.

With

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