digg

Web publishers and blog owners have a new toy to play with: Facebook announced Monday that it has launched new "share" buttons with counters, much in the manner of Digg's iconic buttons and the third-party TweetMeme app for Twitter sharing.

Plus, there's more: Publishers installing Facebook share buttons can also get data back related to how many times that link has been shared, how many users have hit the thumbs-up "like" button or commented on shared versions of the story on Facebook, and how many people have clicked back to it through Facebook.

These … Read more

Kevin Rose started a new side project in March called WeFollow aimed at creating a Twitter directory in which any user can add their account to a category. Users are then ranked in the various categories on the site, creating a good way to see who the top Twitterers are in a given subject area. The rumor is now that Digg has acquired WeFollow.

Mashable noticed that the copyright on the bottom of WeFollow now reads "(c) 2009, Digg Inc." This would appear to mean that Digg has in some way come into possession of WeFollow. TechCrunch reports … Read more

Wilson and I both saw that new movie "Paranormal Activity" over the weekend, and although it's being touted as the new Exorcist, we both think it's more like an uncreative, boring version of The Blair Witch Project. Lots of build-up and suspense for a pretty vanilla ending, but I'm not sure what we expected out of a $10K movie. Maybe we've all just been completely spoiled by blockbusters like Roland Emmerch's upcoming disaster movie, 2012. Jeff's not a huge fan, per usual, but watch this insane clip and TRY NOT TO PANIC.

We've seen and played with our fair share of ridiculous iPhone apps before, but the new Puff! app is the latest Japanese game that might raise some flags...amongst other things. Dancing the line between SFW and not, the program allows you to literally blow up the skirts of women, a la Marilyn Monroe. The app uses the iPhone's microphone to sense the virtual gust of wind that "gives the onscreen character a brief moment of embarrassment."

Speaking of inappropriate things, Marge Simpson just scored the cover of Playboy Magazine. In what seems like the worst business plan ever, the November version of the popular men's magazine will feature a 3-page pictorial with "implied nudity..." we're not even sure what that means, but we can't imagine hordes of teenagers flocking to the nearest liquor store to pick up this issue. Besides, we would rather see Lois Griffin on the cover...no offense, Margie.

Video coming soon, check back later today!… Read more

It's been an interesting week for Foursquare, the location-based social networking site.

On Sunday, Foursquare might have been referenced on an episode of "The Simpsons" that was filled with Twitter and Facebook references. On Monday, TechCrunch reported that Digg founder Kevin Rose outed himself as an investor in Foursquare while he was at the Future of Web Apps conference in London. And on Tuesday, Foursquare announced that London will be added to the growing list of cities where its service is available.

Through a tweet, Foursquare announced that it will be bringing the service to London this … Read more

A Digg application for the iPhone is in the works, two years after Apple announced its own version. Kevin Rose, co-founder of the popular social-bookmarking and Web aggregation site, was spotted playing with the app in London.

Rose was attending the Future of Web Apps conference, where he hung out with our own Nate Lanxon and Natali Del Conte. Arnt Eriksen and Thomas Moen of Norwegian videocast Sofaprat clocked Rose playing with a trial version of the app on his iPhone.

Rose was unforthcoming about the functionality of the app, chuckling, "You're not even supposed to know about that.&… Read more

With the help of plug-ins, you can extend the functionality of your Wordpress blog far beyond what's available to you when you add it to your server.

One of the best ways to get the most out of your blogs is through social plug-ins. These simple plug-ins can be added to your blog to help you connect socially with both your readers and their friends. They offer a fine way to build traffic to your site.

Add to Facebook If you want to make it easy for readers to syndicate your content to Facebook, Add to Facebook is the plug-in for you.

The plug-in provides a simple option at the bottom of each post, called "Share on Facebook." When the reader clicks on that link, they're immediately delivered to their Facebook page, showing a thumbnail of the image in your blog post, as well as the beginning of your post. If Facebook followers click on that link, they'll be delivered to your page. It's a neat utility. And it's a great way to share content through social channels.

Digg Digg Although its name might suggest that Digg Digg is a way to get readers to share your content with the popular social news site, it's much more than that.

Digg Digg allows you to add voting buttons to your blog. You can add a TweetMeme retweet button, a Yahoo Buzz button, and a "Submit to Reddit" option, along with your Digg button. The plug-in also allows you to decide where to place those buttons. You can choose the top, bottom, left, or right of your post.… Read more

Kenley Bradstreet joins the show to fill in Justin's shoes, after he has an unfortunate accident with a missing bike seat. On today's show, Jeff rants about Digg's new ads while he gets new Hoboken Twitter followers. Wilson doesn't feel too hot about James Cameron's new movie "Avatar." Violet Blue starts her own URL shortner. And Kenley brings us a story about a murderous Brazilian talk show host. Yes, it is yet another episode of The 404.

Before we get too ahead of ourselves, let's explain today's show title. Apparently, there is a blog called "Skanks in NYC," and someone called a Vogue cover model, Liskula Cohen, a skank. Using words like "psychotic," "lying" and "whoring" to describe Ms. Cohen, a judge ruled that the model has a right to know who was defaming her. Beyond the First Amendment questions that this ruling raises, Kenley wonders if this undermines the whole point of the Internet?

James Cameron has been on hiatus for the last couple of years after his massive success with "Titanic." Turns out, he's been working on "Avatar" for the last 10 years, inventing all sorts of new technology to bring his vision to the big screen. While the project has been hyped in Hollywood, The 404 gang remains unimpressed with the blue people with tails. Kind of looks like a cross between a PS3 game and Halo, doesn't it?

Before we leave, we mention the new URL shortening service from Violet Blue, sex educator and columnist. At first, we were a bit confused as to why one would need another URL shortening service, but after a few hints from the chat room, we figured out that it's a warning that the link you're about to click on might be a bit NSFW. Bravo! Finally, Kenley alerts us to Wallace Souza, a Brazilian television host. On his top rated show, he features crime busts. Turns out, he was calling hits on people to get the ratings in the first place. We think the police were tipped off when a Steadicam operator, crane and lapel mic were found on scene.

Everyone have a great weekend! Wilson will be out for most of the week next week, so expect more awesome guests to keep his seat warm. In the mean time, please, please, please call in and leave a message at 1-866-404-CNET (2638) or write to us at the404 [at] cnet [dot] com.

Digg's new advertising system, the one that changes how much advertisers have to pay based on how popular their ads are, is going live in the next few days. A new company blog post says that the new system will be very limited in its scale, both in how many advertisers are a part of the pilot program, and how many ads are being placed around the site. So much so that "many (users) will not see them."

If all goes according to plan, these new ads could one day take the place of Digg's existing … Read more

After two days of silence, Digg has gone on the record to officially acknowledge the change in how its shortened links are redirected, as well as clear up how links will be handled in the future.

The change, which took place on Sunday, had links which once lead directly to a story's source, redirecting to Digg's story pages instead. The new behavior appeared only on stories that had been submitted to the site, leading to confusion on where users would go when they clicked on a shortened Digg URL.

In a post on Digg's company blog, CEO … Read more