A new version of Digg launched. Called Version 4.0, the primary changes to the social news site is to make it, well, more social.
The overarching goal is to help users find news of personal interest more easily. They do this by taking a page from the Twitter handbook and showing you stories submitted by people you follow. End result, instead of showing you sitewide “Most Popular” items, they’ve created a “My News” section for easier curation.
We’ve been in and out of the alpha release the past few weeks and were interested to see how the actual release fairs. So we logged in to the site today and the verdict is: buggy.
That said, we have a soft spot for Digg. It was, after all, one of the first truly Web 2.0 services that emerged to mass appeal a few years ago. So we’re giving it a whirl. You can find our new account here.
Digg has a lot of work to do. As Mashable notes:
The company has had a turbulent year. In April, Founder Kevin Rose became CEO after Jay Adelson stepped down, reportedly in part because Digg’s venture capitalists were frustrated that they had yet to see a return on the $40 million invested in the company despite staff cuts in 2009 to improve profitability.
Initial reaction to V4.0 appears mixed with Technorati asking whether Digg’s new do is dead on arrival.
The unkind visual to that sentiment is provided by Banned on the Web.
