Who Needs Digg? We Got Twitter, Stumpleupon, Facebook…
Yay Digg? Not really.
Just one year ago Michael TechCrunch Arrington was “obsessing” about Digg, warning the New York Times of the ascending power of the Web 2.0 “news” phenomenon. Now, he is calling on Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson to just sell the (damn) thing already!
Arrington started the year by proudly declaring his allegiance to Digg as one of the 15 Web 2.0 companies he “couldn’t live without”:
Anyone who reads this blog knows my position on Digg. It’s the future of news, and the most distruptive force to mainstream media since blogs were born.
TechCrunch Digg cheerleading seems to have since dissipated, however:
October 2007: “Are Editors Needed To Sort Through Digg Chaos?”
July 2007: “A Way To Improve Digg’s Data”
May 2007: “Digg Surrenders To Mob”
March 2007: “Towards a Better Digg” (i.e, reddit, clipmarks, blinklist…)
What a difference a year makes?
In March of 2006, Arrington signaled “the power of Digg” as a “significant social force.” In congratulating Digg on its 2nd birthday last December, Arrington consulted his crystal ball to announce: “Digg investors are going to make a boatload of money.”
Last summer, on the eve of the launch of Digg 3.0, Arrington declared “Digg is looking more and more like the newspaper of the Web and is challenging even the New York Times on page views.” I challenged Arrington on THAT comparison!
Arrington now seems to have lowered his expectations for Digg, saying: “There is a real argument that Digg can be a mainstream news sorting service.”
YES, but STILL NOT the New York Times.
Arrington continues to root for Digg, nevertheless: “There is no good reason to sell Digg when it continues to grow like a weed.”
Team Digg, undoubetdly, see things differently, though. Monetization hurdles, rampant cloning and increasing competition from newer, (cooler?) link “sharing” alternatives–Twitter, Stumpleupon, Facebook–are but some of the reasons Digg may be ripe for the selling.
BUT, Digg does not appear to be ripe for the taking. Despite enjoying tech cover boy status same as YouTube’s Chad & Steve and Facebook’s Mark, the lofty valuations THOSE geek idols garnered do not seem to be in the cards for Digg’s Kevin Rose.
Buyers are NOT Digging Digg the way Rose and Adelson believe they ought to.
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