I love Digg. I surf it at least a couple times a day, usually when I’m bored, sitting a work waiting for something to compile. I would say that without a doubt the majority of my “cool” news actually comes from Digg.
Lately I’ve begun submitting the odd story on my own to Digg. No matter how many times I try to submit something though, I always seem to get stuck on the same old problem — what category does the story fit in? The main problem I think is that Digg categories are more mainstream news oriented and less about the things I actually am interested in (even though I think most techies are interested in the same things I am).
Image from here
The main technology categories are:
- Apple – this seems straight forward
- Design – what the fuck does this mean?
- Gadgets – I can live with that
- Hardware – Isn’t that sort of a gadget? Or is it more computer oriented?
- Industry News – What is considered technology industry news? That’s pretty open.
- Linux – straightforward, all things Linux
- Microsoft – spam folder?
- Mods – for the engineer in all of us
- Programming – shouldn’t we split web from non-web development?
- Security – Security of what? Your house? Your files?
- Software – this is pretty open ended too
Now, that list isn’t completely horrible at first glance, but let’s try and categorize a few standard things. Let’s take a few of my interests, and some of the things I write about from time to time – Photography, Blogging, Social Networks, Internet Search. Where do these fit in?
You could fit Photography in the Arts section I guess, but that’s a fairly big umbrella. Most of photography these days is digital, so why not have a section on Digital Photography. I see tons of Digg articles all the time talking about HDR imagery, iPhoto, Aperture, etc., so why not have a section where these can end up in. Right now, these don’t really end up anywhere important on Digg.
Blogging? Nope, there’s no real category for that. If you’re talking about the technical side of blogging, it could fit into Programming. In terms of add-ons for blogs, cool new CMS platforms or things of that nature, nothing really fits. Another big miss for Digg.
Social Networks? These are the ones I find strange. I’ve dugg a few articles on Facebook, and I have no idea where they should go. Considering all these networks are valued in the billions and most of us spend a good portion of our day on these sites, shouldn’t they get a special section? Another strike.
Internet Search? Yahoo, Google, search, SEO, web 2.0 — these are all popular things to talk about on the Internet, but they don’t really have a proper home in the Digg category system. Why not have a “Internet” or “Web Technologies” category to put some of these?
I think the makers of Digg just choose a few random categories after a few beers one time and didn’t actually stop to consider how useful they actually were. Another popular article today on digg describes how there are less and less technology stories these day. I’d wager it’s partly because nobody knows where the heck to put them.
I think the guys at Digg need to sit down and rethink some of these. If you have any suggestions, drop a line below.
[poll=7]
I’d say all of the above, but it would only let me choose 2 😛 (you can change that, ya know hehe)
Or they could implement tagging, with feeds for each tag. I don’t follow categories on Digg anyway, but rather watch what people I know post (that haven’t made the front page yet) and search terms, both of which I do through RSS. So it doesn’t matter what category you add something as: I’ll see it if you use the right keywords or if you’re on my friends list.
Or you could do what I do and not go there at all.
Where’s the fun in that?