[Last Updated: July 11, 2007]

What is Digg? Digg is a free Web 2.0 social news service that started with a simple, yet brilliant concept. Instead of a newspaper editor determining what are that days top stories, Digg instead lets its 510,000+ users submit and determine what are the top news stories of that day by “Digging” articles they like or “Burying” articles they dislike. As a story accumulates Diggs, its ranking will continue to grow (based off Digg’s algorithm).The stories with the highest rankings, and likely most Digg’s, will eventually work their way to the front page to be seen by everyone. The Bury feature was added as a way to let users moderate the posts, helping to deal with flames, spam, duplicates, or off topic posts. If an article gets buried enough times, it will eventually grey out the comments and make it unable to be found on the website without viewing it through the profile of someone who has Dugg the article.

What kind of articles can be dugg? Digg originally only tracked technology related articles, but with the recent release of Digg version 3.0, they’ve expanded and currently have the following categories available: Technology, World and Business, Videos, Sports, Science, Entertainment, and Gaming. Digg also has sub categories within each category, helping users find the type of articles they are looking for. If you find you don’t want access to some of these categories, Digg allows you to set your default category to be viewed, as well as remove categories from your view that you don’t want access to by going to the Manage Topics section of your user profile and making the appropriate changes.

How do I submit a story to Digg? First, you will need to register for a free user account. Once thats done, you can submit your story to Digg. The submit screen will prompt you to enter the web address of the post you want to submit. You will then enter the title of the story and a brief description summary of the post. The title and description are what Digg users will see when considering whether to view the post or not, so make it as accurate as possible. Once that is done, the last thing you will need to do is select the proper category and subcategory for the article to be placed in. Once you’re done with that, it will have you verify that you are human and click Submit Story. It will then take you to a screen where you’ll see 5-10 possible duplicates. Confirm it hasn’t already been Dugg already and finalize the submit and the story will be made available for everyone to see!

How do I use the Digg service? Using Digg will take a little bit to get used to, but once you’ve used it for awhile it can get extremely addictive. First, you’ll want to narrow your search by selecting a category from the menu on the left side. Along the top, you will have access to the following links: Recently Popular, This Week, This Month, and This Year.

On the left hand side you have the number of Digg’s the article has received. By clicking the title, it will take you to the post on the authors website. Users can also comment on the article. One of my favorite parts of Digg is the ability to Digg or Bury comments as well. You can also reply to specific comments instead of to the original article, avoiding the need for quoting other commenters and making a much easier to follow comment screen for readers. If I had submitted this article, you would also see a Bury icon to the right of the Topic. If you don’t like the article, or don’t feel its worth other readers time, click the Bury icon and you will get to pick the reason you are burying it. Your choices are Duplicate story, Spam, Wrong Topic, Inaccurate, or OK, this is Lame. Once you’ve read the article and Dugg or Buried it, you can then move on to the next article. Give it a try for awhile and you’ll be addicted!

Feel like your spending to much time on Digg’s website? You’re in luck! Digg has an RSS Feed for every category and subcategory out there, allowing you to get updates thrown directly into your feed reader. If you prefer to make your own custom feeds, you can do a URL or keyword search and get a feed for that as well to plug into your feed reader.

Digg Features

What is Digg Spy? Digg Spy is a real time view of whats happening as it happens on Digg.com.

What is the Digg friend’s feature? Digg friends is a system within Digg that allows you to track what stories other Digg users have Dugg within the past 48 hours. To get to your friends area, go to your user profile and click on the Manage Friends tab. You will have the option to see a list of People Who Have Befriended Me as well as the option to Invite Friends. If you see an article that has a star next to it, that means a person you have marked as a friend has Dugg that article. If 2 or more friends have Dugg an article, it goes into a separate category called Agreed On. You can also see Upcoming articles, Commented On articles, and Submitted Articles. If you’re curious about who may have you on their friends list, you can use this Digg Friends Checker. Simply enter your Digg user name and it will tell you who has you marked as a friend.

What is Digg Labs? Digg Labs is two services designed to give you a broader view of Digg in a couple of unique ways. Currently, they offer two services. The first service is called Digg Stack. Digg Stack shows what is happening on Digg in real time, on up to 100 stories at once. As stories are Dugg more often, the color will adjust to reflect this increase in Diggs and the stack will grow to reflect the popularity increases of the story. There is a zoom level allowing you to zoom in to focus primarily on new stories, or zoom out for a more broad view. You can also click on a story to see more about it, including who dugg the post, comments, etc. The second service is called Digg Swarm. Digg Swarm shows all posts as circles and groups them by Digg user. Each time a story is dugg, the circle representing that post will grow and move to group with other circles representing additional stories Dugg by that same user. As with Digg Stack, you can click on the circle to see more information about it, as well as remove it from the swarm.

What is Digg’s #1 Story feature? Digg’s newest feature, #1 story, adds an #1 story icon next to the title of every story you Digg. If you click this icon, it will add the story to your Digg profile (like normal), but lock it into place at the top of your profile. You can have more than one #1 story in your profile.

Can I get Digg in cloud view? Digg Cloud is a nice page that monitors all upcoming stories. As a story gains popularity, the font size will grow. The most popular stories will have the largest wording.

Integrate Digg with your Website

Why is Digg important to my blog? Blog owners are beginning to notice the value Digg has for their blogs. Whenever a Digg user submits a story you wrote, Digg will have a link to your website’s article and a short description submited by the user. If other Digg users enjoy your post, they will also Digg your post. The more Digg’s your post receives, the higher its Digg ranking and the more people will see it. As you can probably imagine, the traffic to your website on a great post could mean 10,000+ visitors easily. I know of two occasions where the amount of traffic has actually crashed the website.

How do I use the Blog This! feature on Digg? Digg can be customized to work with several different blogging services. To get your blog to work with Typepad, see Eric Senf’s post. For other services, go to the Profile + Settings tab in your profile and click on edit the account settings section. Under blogging preferences, you can enter your blog type, user name, and password. Once you’ve got your Digg account linked to your blog, you can use the “Blog This!” feature found on many posts to have the article added to your blog.

Where can I get Digg badges and buttons? Digg recently made available Digg badges and buttons for website owners that want to integrate Digg with their website. Included a large variety of Digg This! style buttons you can use on your website to make it easier for users to Digg your posts. Why would you want to do this? Well, readers are generally lazy (although I’m sure none of you are!). The easier it is to Digg your posts, the more likely your posts will get Dugg. And getting your stories Dugg should be one of your sites goals, as it will generate alot of traffic, which obviously generates revenue.

How do I get a ‘Digg This’ button on my website? If you use Feedburner for your feed, you can get a Digg This! feedflare below each post. You’ll want to go to the Optimize tab and click on the Feed Flare icon. To the left of the Add Flare button you will want to paste this into the URL field: http://rossbelmont.com/diggthis.xml. This will throw a Digg This icon at the bottom of all of your posts (Once you’ve enabled Feedflare and pasted the code in your blog’s template).

If you use Movable Type, MajorDojo has posted a nice plugin to add a Digg This! icon below each post. If your a WordPress user, WP-Notable is a popular extension for adding social bookmarking services below each post, including Digg. WordPress users also have Digg Notification, which notifies you via E-mail when a post on your website has been Dugg.

How do I add Digg News to my website? Digg News for your Website is a feature I use for this site. You can customize it to your specifications, showing 10 or 20 popular posts, and even picking a specific category to show. Throwing this into your websites sidebar will add some dynamic content to the website, giving frequent visitors something new to see if they check your website multiple times a day.

Can I add my Digg profile to my website? Digg Card gives you the necessary code for adding your Digg profile to your website. If you have a WordPress blog, you can also use the Digg Badge WordPress plugin.

Can I get a Digg signature for my website? Digg Sig offers the code needed to add an auto-updating Digg signature which can be used on your website or MySpace page.

Digg Hacks, Extensions, Add-ons, and Bookmarklets

Firefox Users:

• Digg extension – Adds a toolbar (similar to Google for Firefox) and allows you to quick search for the top articles in each area.
• Digg This Firefox Toolbar – Adds Digg This! and Digg Profile button to your Firefox toolbar.
• Digg extension for Firefox – Adds a Digg menu to your web browser.
• Digg.com Toolbar – Provides a toolbar (also works with Internet Explorer)
• DiggThumbs – Makes a thumbnail preview of the post that was Dugg.

Opera Users:

• Digg Opera Widget – Displays RSS feed from Digg.

Digg Bookmarklets:

• Better Digg Bookmarklet – Diggs the post and adds the post title automatically
• Submit to Digg – Bookmarklet that opens in new window or tab

Miscellaneous:

• DiggGadget – Adds Digg v3 to Google Desktop
• Digg Update – Digg update notifications for MAC OS X
• Digglicious – Webpage that shows popular articles and number of Diggs and Del.icio.us bookmarks
• DiggTray – Sits in system tray of your computer and notifies you when a new story appears on Digg’s front page.

Didn’t find the add-on you’re looking for? I have highlighted the popular ones. For a more more complex list, check out Digg Tools by Category by 3Spots or the Digg Tools Collection by Quick Online Tips.

Other useful Digg Tools:

• Official Digg Blog
• Add Digg modules to your Google homepage
• See Digg articles at the top of your Google search results
• Beginners Guide to Digg

Know of something I missed? Leave a comment below and I’ll be happy to update this post!