Social news site Digg relaunched its Firefox extension on Tuesday, adding a small number of iterative improvements. The company also launched an extension for Google's Chrome browser, which lets users see if a story has been submitted to Digg, as well as vote on it--all without leaving the page.
Both extensions show a count of how many Diggs a story has if it has been submitted, as well as a speedy way to submit links if they haven't. They also let users share any page they're on, not just through Digg, but on social networks like Twitter and Facebook too. In Firefox's case, the extension adds the option to create a shortened Digg URL too.
Other improvements in the Firefox version include the addition of a keyboard shortcut that can show and hide the toolbar, and size reductions both to the toolbar as well as the user notifications that pop down from time to time.
Along with the browser add-ons, Digg now has an updated version of its app for social media player Boxee. The new version lets users peruse popular stories, as well as vote on them, all from the comfort of their couch. Previously, all it was able to do was play videos that had been made popular on the social network.
The trend of Digg making most of its site available from elsewhere is something that started when the company launched its writeable API late last year. That in itself wouldn't be such a big deal, however Digg's main business model thus far has been advertising--something that does not yet appear on third-party tools that are making use of these APIs.
