Somewhere, throughout my vast array of email filters, I must have missed my invitation to try out the new Digg 4.0 beta / alpha system, but this weekend out of sheer curiosity, I logged into new Digg site and got to play around with what is coming up. So, without further ado, here is a look at the inside of the new Digg system.
Finding Friends
When you first login to the new Digg, it will suggest some profiles for you to follow under a variety of topics, including Business, Entertainment, Technology, and more.
New Digg Suggested People to Follow
On the next screen, you are invited to connect your Digg account to Facebook, Google, and Twitter to find your friends on Digg from each network.
New Digg Find Friends on Facebook, Google, and Twitter
If you decide to skip these options when first signing in, you can find popular profiles and check your networks later by going to My News > Find Profiles, and you’ll see a little section for My Networks on the left sidebar along with the topics you can search for popular profiles in.
New Digg My Networks
Followers and Following
One thing that was nice about the old Digg that is not available in the new Digg (not at the moment at least) is the ability to see if a person you are following is also following you.
Old Digg Mutual Friends and Fans
To see your Followers and Following in the new Digg, you can click on the links on the navigation bar.
New Digg Followers and Following
But you can only see if you are following someone – if you want to follow your new fans, you can follow them easily, but you won’t be able to see if people you follow have followed you back.
New Digg Follow or Unfollow
If you want to purge your list of non-mutual friends, you may wish to do so before the new system becomes live, just in case the new system doesn’t implement a way for you to see which of your following isn’t following you. Interestingly, I noticed that unfriending someone in the old system wasn’t reflected in the new Digg system – so if you are in both, you will want to unfollow the person in the new Digg, but if you are not, then doing it in the old Digg should carry over.
Your Profile
Another thing that doesn’t seem to be carried over from the old Digg to the new one is your list of links. To fill out your new Digg profile, click on the Settings option in the nav bar and go to Profile.
New Digg Profile Settings
Next, add your links.
New Digg Links Setting
And your new Digg profile will look like this:
New Digg Profile
Imported Feeds
You may notice at the bottom of my profile is a section for Imported Feeds. This is a feature in the new Digg system that allows you to import your blog RSS feed so that new items are automatically submitted to Digg. You can setup your blog feeds under Settings > Import Feeds.
New Digg Import Feeds
You will have to verify that you are the site owner by adding a code to one of your posts’ HTML.
This brings up an interesting question, brought up in the Third Tribe forums – will auto submitting your content be better than having a “power Digger” submit it in terms of the story’s chances of getting hot on the Digg homepage? When you choose the auto-submit feature, will you have any control over the items that you can change when you submit the items manually (title, description, images, category)? And should you only submit custom RSS feed selections?
Submitting Stories to Digg
Let’s look at the basic submission process for stories on new Digg, which is a lot more simpler than the old Digg system. If you go to either the My News or Top News tab, you will see a Submit a Link field. Just paste in your link, and the information will popup for it.
New Digg Submit a Link
You can edit the title and description, select a photo from the story, and then choose the category it best fits in and then click Digg It. Then you’re all done!
New Digg All Done
Here, it says the story is now shared with your number of followers. Any stories you Digg will be shown on your profile, as well as in the My News tab of all of your followers.
New Digg My News
When your friends submit stories, you will see which friends have Dugg it as well as a comment snippet from your friends on the story. So needless to say, when you submit or Digg a story, make a comment to have it stand out to your following.
Top News
Since the My News tab only shows items that are being dugg by friends, you have to select the Top News tab if you want to see what is hot on the homepage throughout the entire community.
New Digg Top News
Currently, the Top News and the homepage of the old Digg system (which you can be simultaneously logged into, oddly enough) do not show the same stories, but I’m sure that’s one of the many kinks to be worked out.
Disclaimer: Please note that all of the above shots are from the invite only / beta / alpha version. Some features may change once it is released live which should be somewhere around 3 – 4 weeks from now.
Your Thoughts on the New Digg
Have you gotten your invite and played around in the new Digg system? Do you enjoy the idea of just following diggs by your friends, and plan on using the import feeds auto submit feature? What other likes and dislikes have you noticed or foresee?
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