digg

Digg unveiled a new ad platform on Wednesday that will give companies an ad medium that looks and feels like user-submitted stories that have been promoted to Digg's front page. Users will be able to Digg up ads they like and "bury" ones they don't using the same voting mechanism used on regular site links.

Partners for the initial roll-out of ads include Electronic Arts and Intel, the latter of which has provided sponsorship on Digg's labs pages as well as advertising on other parts of the site.

Two things make advertised Digg stories different … Read more

The publisher of Federated Media, which sells ads for blogs and social media sites, is leaving to be chief revenue officer at user-based news aggregator Digg.

Chas Edwards, who will officially assume his new role on June 22, had stints in sales and marketing at CNET and TechTV before co-founding Federated Media in 2005 with then-journalist John Battelle of Wired and The Industry Standard renown.

At Digg, Edwards will work on sales and advertising strategy and focus on creating new revenue streams including sponsorships, new ad programs and channels, as well as manage the company's ad relationship with Microsoft, … Read more

"All your networks are belong to us." That could be the tagline for Zensify, a new iPhone app that lets you view, update, and share content from multiple social networks.

In other words, Zensify aims to take the place of standalone apps for the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr--or at least to save you the time of bopping from one to another just to read and post updates.

In addition to those three popular networks, Zensify can connect you with 12seconds, Delicious, Digg, Photobucket, and YouTube. (Support for more services is in the works, according to the … Read more

As more government officials choose to publicly answer questions submitted by Internet users, they're encountering a new phenomenon: marijuana activists intent on forcing answers to the would-you-legalize-pot question.

In March, President Obama's first virtual town hall took a detour when questions about legalizing marijuana were voted to the top of the "financial stability," "jobs," "budget," and (of course) "green jobs" polls on WhiteHouse.gov

On Wednesday, it was California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, who was put on the spot. Digg.com users propelled a legalize-marijuana question to the No. … Read more

After 10 months of promising that it was on the way, Digg is finally implementing Facebook Connect. In the next few hours Facebook users will be able to log into Digg with their Facebook credentials and use the site as if they had spent the time registering. It will also push their activity back to Facebook so their friends can see what they've been digging, and let them find other Facebook users who are using Digg too.

Digg is one of largest sites to implement Facebook Connect thus far. Second after that is likely CNN and CitySearch, both of which implemented Connect late last year.

This move is definitely a win-win for both parties. Users of both sites have long been able to post stories they've dugg to their Facebook profiles through various third party Facebook apps. The real magic here is that Digg will have an alternate way for newcomers to use the site in a way where long-term usage can be tracked and promoted back over to Facebook users who have not yet registered with Digg (and no longer need to).

Still missing from Digg's log-in options, and what was originally unveiled when Facebook Connect was announced, is support for OpenID. Like with Facebook Connect, this would let OpenID users log in with their OpenID credentials. However, it's likely taken the backseat to the implementation of Facebook Connect since there are fewer ways to resyndicate that segment of user activity.

Digg: Facebook Connect Demo from Digg Meetups on Vimeo.

Update: I just tried this out on my account, and what's nice is that if you're already a registered Digg user it simply links up your two accounts and finds your Facebook friends who are also Digg users. You can also choose which actions on Digg you want syndicated over to your news feed back on Facebook. You might want to double check these settings if you're the kind of person who leaves, creepy or otherwise not-safe-for-Facebook comments on Digg. Screenshot after the break.… Read more

Google has launched a Web page plug-in called What's Popular that can give iGoogle home page users a service similar to those offered by Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and Mixx.

Google's own servers select links from YouTube and Reader and blend them with those submitted by users. The gadget shows users these links along with up and down arrows to vote approval or disapproval of the site.

Lacking in the Google feature is any way users can comment on a Web page, one of the central features of Digg and its rivals.

Rumors of Google's interest in acquiring … Read more

Don't want to deal with the DiggBar? Or what if you want other tools to help improve your Digg experience? We have you covered with these Firefox add-ons.

DiggBar Remover Start with the DiggBar Remover. It removes the DiggBar when you're browsing. Done? OK, move on to these other add-ons...

Digg Comment Spotlight Sifting through Digg comments can be a pain. But the Digg Comment Spotlight highlights comments on a Digg story that were dugg by other users. So, if you don't want to read comments that were buried or never dugg, the Digg Comment Spotlight will help you quickly find all those comments that others liked. It makes reading comments much easier.

Digg Firefox Extension The Digg Firefox Extension lets you know if the page you're on has been submitted to Digg. If not, you can submit it in just a few clicks. If it has, the extension displays the number of Diggs the story has, how many people have commented on it, and the story's description. My favorite feature is the popular story notification, which pops up whenever a new story hits the front page. Overall, the Digg Firefox Extension is designed well. It's a must-have for any Digg fanatic.

Digg Sidebar The Digg Sidebar gives you real-time updates of all Digg activity. It runs in the sidebar and updates automatically without requiring a refresh. It's useful for some who want constant updates about Digg, but I didn't like how much screen real estate it took up. And resizing it, while possible, reduces its usefulness, since it's harder to read stories. It's best suited to the Digg addict.… Read more

As announced last week, Digg relaunched its DiggBar feature late Tuesday, making it something that only appears for registered users, who are now able to turn it off completely. That new option shows up in Digg's user settings panel which means users can choose whether they feel like using it.

Along with the change, the company has also adjusted the DiggBar's behavior once you leave the site to go read a story. For one it's smaller, in an attempt to take up less space on sites you're visiting. Digg has also "temporarily" removed the … Read more

Social-news site Digg has ended its advertising partnership with Microsoft more than a year before the deal was set to expire. Instead of relying on Microsoft as its exclusive ad partner, Digg will now primarily use the internal sales force it recently began building; Microsoft will handle remnant inventory.

"Starting July 1, Microsoft will sell network inventory for Digg through the Microsoft Media Network, which it has been doing successfully for the last year and a half," a statement from Microsoft read. "Digg has created its own internal sales executive team, and we respect their decision to … Read more