Digg let users "digg" stories onto a front page that could crash a small website with traffic. In August 2010, Digg version 4 removed favourite features, let publishers auto-submit content, and triggered a user revolt so complete that Reddit links took over Digg's own front page.
Founded by Kevin Rose in 2004, Digg became the poster child of Web 2.0 social news. Its yellow digg counter buttons appeared on blogs everywhere. The v4 relaunch on 25 August 2010 dropped the bury button and story categories, and days of protest followed, including a "Quit Digg Day". Rose stepped down as CEO in September, and the site's traffic never recovered. Betaworks bought what was left in 2012 for a reported $500,000.
- Domain in 2010
- digg.com
- Launched
- 5 November 2004
- Founders
- Kevin Rose
- Owner in 2010
- Digg, Inc. (private)
- Status today
- Still exists, transformed
What people used it for
- Voting news stories onto a shared front page
- Commenting on tech and politics stories
Interface characteristics
- Yellow digg-count boxes beside every story
- "Digg it" buttons embedded on blogs
- Category tabs across the top
- Story thumbnails and comment counts
Notable features
- Digg effect: front-page traffic surges
- Digg v4 relaunch (August 2010)
- Publisher auto-submissions
What happened later
Digg was sold in pieces in 2012 and relaunched as a news aggregator; it changed hands again several times and was revived once more in 2025.
Archived on the Wayback Machine
Archived pages open on web.archive.org (Internet Archive). They are historical captures, not part of this exhibit.
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