Digg-ing Facebook

Not long ago, Digg was the super-cool site. It got on the covers of national magazines and was the talk of the tech digerati. Of course, things have changed – and now Facebook is the "in" thing. But Digg is not giving up. That is, the site has been adding social networking features, such as sharing, messaging, and so on.

So is it going to make a difference? Well, I had a chance to interview Robb Hecht, who is an expert on social networking and operates MEDIA 2.0. According to him:

"Digg has excellent intentions making its site more of a social networking play akin to MySpace and Facebook. Via adding 50+ new social features, the site clearly has plans to continue to grow and reach mainstream users by giving them the capability to shape their identities (digitally self actualize) within the Digg community.

"But, while Digg goes mainstream, it will alienate its core tech savvy community who will likely leave for other niche properties focused on tech -- that is, the site's initial power users. This seems okay with Digg. Instead of looking back to its core base, the site appears to want to forge ahead and shed its 'geek hub' image and reshape its brand reputation to take on MySpace and Facebook.

"As social networking tools proliferate across the internet, Digg may be on to something. With internet users being bombarded with social networking invites from all their friends, the trusted key brand names in the space will draw the most users. Digg wants its brand to be among the top three. And I think its new features will take it to the next level."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.