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Digg is perhaps the best example of how things change fast on the Internet. A couple of years ago it was every tech blog’s darling and the best place to get news. The actions of its community were widely reported on. It was generally regarded as the next big thing.

Fast forward to now, and it simply hasn’t happened. Digg is still a very cool site, but the next big thing it is not. Facebook and Twitter have assumed that role, while Digg had to settle for still being the biggest read-submit-vote-comment site, with competitors like Mixx and Reddit simply unable to catch up, at least in terms of traffic.

Now, according to Telegraph, Digg is preparing some big changes for the service. “We’re making some drastic changes, but they’re much-needed drastic changes. People are going to be shocked at some of the directions we’re taking. You have to be comfortable with completely tearing down and throwing away a bunch of ideas,” Digg’s founder Kevin Rose said.

Surprisingly, Rose was quite precise about the changes he plans for Digg. They will involve the placement of the navigation bar and the Digg button, a bigger emphasis on photos, and (most importantly), a bigger focus on real-time information, probably in an effort to better compete with Twitter’s speed. The following quote from Rose is particularly revealing:

“In the next version of Digg you’ll see stories being presented to you in a more real-time nature, especially stories that your friends have touched. It will not be just about Digg.com, but also embracing all the content that your friends touch on other websites. It’s about being that place where people say, ‘I’m going to take a look at Digg because it provides me insight into what’s trending, what’s popular, what’s hot from all over these different places where people exchange information’.”

Indeed, this doesn’t sound too much like the Digg of today. Traditionally, Digg has been focused on itself; it seems that the founders finally decided it’s time to open up to content from other services, such as Twitter and Facebook. One service that took some of Digg’s ideas and applied them to the real-time web was Tweetmeme; it’s not too far-fetched to imagine Digg stealing some of those ideas back.

Change might be good for Digg, but how will it sit with Digg’s community, which has revolted against certain changes on the site a couple of times before? It’s a gamble, but seeing how much the web has changed in the last couple of years, it’s probably a gamble Digg has to take.

Tags: digg, social media

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