Top 10 Things Digg Needs (Or Needs to Improve On)

Everyone's favorite socially driven news site has a lot to offer but could also learn a lot from its users. Here are 10 things I feel the site needs to work on.

1. Photo Section: Many articles on a daily basis that are just pictures with (PIC) in the description. This has been requested for some time now by much of the community.

2. Site Mail: This is a feature they have on Netscape and just gives the site a more social feel.

3. Search: Yes I know Digg has a search option in the top corner, but it is often slow and rarely returns anything related to my search. They could partner with Google on this as I'm sure Google would probably be on board.

4. Crowd Control: They need better systems in place to alert administrators when articles such as those that post private data of others ex: myspace passwords and recent camera theft article.

5. NSFW button: Many of the articles on Digg that are worth of being on the front page are sometimes not safe for work, but why remove them completely when you can just get enough votes like with the inaccurate button to mark an item as NSFW.

6. Personalized Profiles: No I'm not saying make it like MySpace, but just give a small bio section.

7. Submit a New Story Link: Have you ever noticed you have to back out or type in the link to submit a story when you are within your profile. This is just an annoyance to me, but also something very easy to fix.

This is from the home page.

This is from within your user profile.

8. Top User Lists: This doesn't necessarily have to be a top 100 list (but the top 100 list was nice) just a list of the most active users, and users who are receiving the most Diggs on their stories. This would help users connect with each other.

9. Prizes: Okay this one is a stretch, but it would be great if Digg got some sponsors together to give away prizes to users who are active in certain categories.

10. Site Preview: If you were able to preview a cached version of a site before you actually went to the site this would be great. They could partner with snap for something like this.

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Chris Hemphill, June 30, 2007

Thanks for the constructive criticism. This post isn't meant to put down Digg, but to suggest a few ways to make the site better.

Jeremy Steele, June 30, 2007

Wow, someone needs to take some anger management classes.

Susan Murray, June 30, 2007

I think that digg needs to add more diverse topic categories so that there will be a more diverse group of people using the site. What about sections for the arts, crafts, child care, cooking and food? There are stories that would fit in these categories posted all the time, but right now they are hard to find. Digg needs and "arts and living" section with subcategories.

Susan Murray, June 30, 2007

Digg should also work on making the environment less sexist. there are quite a few bloggers who have written about this:

http://community.livejournal.com/feminist/2910475.html

(there's a list of links in this post to the bloggers who have mentioned this problem.)

Sujan Patel, June 30, 2007

Looks like someone needs to moderate comments a little better.

Adam, June 30, 2007

what about an indicator for a link that is maxed out.

Stephen T, June 30, 2007

How do you provide a icon for a site that is down (I assume you mean this)?

Check it every x seconds/minutes, adding to the traffic, preventing it coming back on line

Chris Hinojosa, June 30, 2007

Number 10: Site Preview would be really really helpful for colleges and organizations that use websense. Or at least have a websense highlight or adult/explicit content highlight next to sites that would cause a websense alert to come up.

DAN, June 30, 2007

What about a section where there's a list of mirrored links for when a site is down (which happens often!).... i usually have to look through the comments to find mirrors, but it would be nice if you could submit mirrors for a story and they would appear in a nice list... ?

Jordan Meeter, June 30, 2007

The number one thing this website clearly needs is crowd control.

Josh, June 30, 2007

I don't mean to bitch, but I really hate it when people digg an article and say "title says it all." Most times the title has nothing to do with the article and I've wasted time reading a retarded, irrelevant article because someone was too lazy to write a few descriptive words describing what the article is or why he/she dugg it.

Saralyn Ready, June 30, 2007

Great ideas. I have one more. Why not have more categories in which to place the article. Sometimes, the "fit" is not correct, but it is better than nothing. How about breaking down the business categories into high level areas like health care profession, stocks and bonds, finance, food industry, hotels and lodging etc . It would help us reach those that may be most interested.

frankiejr, June 30, 2007

Great idea. Maybe they just missed it because it's so obvious.
This has been brought up before. I wonder if it's a feature they want to add, or if they're purposely leaving it out. I can see benefis of both.
Agreed.
Agreed.
Couldn't hurt, but ultimately it's up to the user to decide whether to click a link or not. In the end you're still surfing the web at work, which you shouldn't be doing at work anyways (for personal use, anyways).
Agreed.
Agreed. And you're right, it should be a simple change. It's probably just a simple oversight.
I don't agree with this one, but we all have our opinions and I'll save us all from the (possibly heated) discussion.
No freaking way. One reason and one reason only: think about the ridiculous amount of people that'd be trying to screw with the system to win prizes.
No way. This would steal too much traffic from the article's site. Besides, you can just visit it later. If you don't remember about it after it's off the front page it probably wasn't of much interest in the first place.

There isn't much I'd change about Digg, really. In a perfect world I'd love it if there were more solid articles and no one trying to play the system, but this world ain't perfect. It's the internet. :)

Jared Schwager, June 30, 2007

Some great ideas here. I never noticed until now that the submit story link isn't in the profile section of Digg. I really don't feel that a bio section for the profiles is needed. We've already got Twitter and Facebook for giving the public our life stories. Though I would like to see a social networking services thing going on in the profile where you could choose from a list of social networks and enter in your username for each one, somewhat like BlogCatalog does.

John, June 30, 2007

@Josh I have totally agree with you. Unfortunately, this is becoming even more and more common as people begin to post an increasing amount of pictures. Its also just as annoying when someone posts a description that tells me nothing about the article or its contents. Not to single this individual out, but the recent article by Sepultra is titled "Jesus...wft // Pic" and the description merely says "amen" (http://www.digg.com/offbeatnews/Jesuswtfpic2). First off, that title and description tells me nothing about the link except for the fact that its a picture, other than that I can assume that it has something to do with Jesus, but for all I know it could be a picture of Steve Jobs on an iPhone. A more appropriate description might have been "Apparently someone in this apparment building wanted to proclaim the name of Jesus using Christmas lights in his/her window. Unfortunately for them, their neighbors didn't share quite the same feelings and decided to make themselves heard." Yes it may not be the greatest description, and although it somewhat ruins the 'surprise' that people get when they click the link; but isn't that what the description is supposed to do? To tell/summarize for the reader what the link goes to. By the way, not only does this article lack a good description and title, it's also a dupe of http://digg.com/offbeatnews/WTFJesusIMAGE However, I would like to point out that this is not the only story which fails to provide an andequate description: http://www.digg.com/technews/Howfarwevecome_2 "How far we've come" "Old school, meet new school" How about giving me some info like "Side by side pic comparing the Newton to the iPhone", seriously, at least that gives me an idea that its not some article about the history of the movie "Old School". Finally, whoever submitted this article could have done a better job of describing this article by listing the points mentioned in the article, in addition to clarifying what exactically is the thing that is conspicuously missing. Just my 2 cents, or should I say 20 cents? Sorry I kinda started to rant, oh well.

surfer, June 30, 2007

Digg's mobile version has to be designed completely

surfer, June 30, 2007

Digg's mobile version has to be designed completely

TV Online, June 30, 2007

Nothing new on this list, but it needs saying again and again until they finally do it. They added a Microsoft section, but they can't add a picture section. Also the cached page thing won't work because they run into copyright problems - but they'res a firefox extension to add a duggmirror link (i uninstalled it because it eats more memory from firefox)

Jordan Green, June 30, 2007

I agree with you on the NSFW button and crowd control ideas i think they would benefit digg.com alot indeed!

Jason Sanzone, June 30, 2007

The nsfw button is a great idea.

shewdiz, June 30, 2007

I liked the Prize Idea... I will link to your blog. nice post !

Eric, June 30, 2007

Mirror Digging.

Basically, when a story is submitted, users should be able to post mirrors or urls that connect to the story. And then people could dig the link; and if one reaches a certain number of the digs, it becomes the active news link. This should rule out "blog spam" and down servers.

Cadu de Castro Alves, June 30, 2007

I think Digg could improve another language supports, like Portuguese or Spanish. I'm brazilian and a lot of stories submitted to Digg are from brazilian websites, but the Digg users - in major americans or people that native language are English - simply ignore those stories because are in Portuguese.

I understand them: they don't understand Portuguese (or Spanish, or French, etc), but the internet is worldwide. I've a lot of friends that visit and submitting stories to Digg.

Google support various language, MySpace, Microsoft and Gmail too, and a lot of famous websites.

If Digg want to be BIG, Digg have to "think" like a BIG.

mossiwo, June 30, 2007

I'm fairly new using Digg, but like the servce very well I think Kevin and Jay nail down a winner service, and an inspiration. I Believe that improvements need to be added "YES OF COURSE" the time will come.

DinoHorse, June 30, 2007

The profile part is in my opinion the most important one... We need to socialize.. Digg is the only system I use where I really feel isolated from the rest!

RFJason, June 30, 2007

Oh hell no. Every last one of these is a bad idea.

Photo Section: WTF do you think this is, twitter? Fucking click and read, bitch.
Site Mail: Why, so I can get spammed here, too? No, thank you.
Search: Try learning to search in a non-retarded fashion. My searches always come up with good results.
Crowd Control: Welcome to the jungle. We got fun & games. Get a back bone and deal with the fact that the internet isn't always a nice place.
NSFW button: Why the fuck are you goofing off at work? Get back to work, you fucking gen y slacker shitbag.
Personalized Profiles: Just post interesting articles. Nobody gives a fuck about your vanity page laden with annoying blinkies and invisible cookie-stealing javascripts.
Submit a New Story Link: Never had that problem.
Top User Lists: This isn't a fucking social network. If you want to pick up on geek chicks, go get a fucking facebook.
Prizes: Now you're just acting retarded. Please kill yourself with an equally retarded person so there are two less retarded people in the world.
Site Preview: How about fuck off? The only reason people post on digg is to drive traffic to their ad-ridden sites. If you put up a site preview, you might as well take down digg.

Jesus christ you're stupid.

PeopleDoSuck, June 30, 2007

I'd like the option to rank my Diggs too; some things are clearly much cooler than others. They could also add an option to rank links as non-Digg-worthy. Keeping with the 70's slang idea, the button for that could be "This link is jive" :)

Steel Frog, June 30, 2007

A "NSFW" button would be quite a blessing. It would be fairly easy to implement at this point. A small image (e.g., "NSFW" branding) could simply be placed after articles and user-posted links.

cm, July 1, 2007

Sorry but I have to disagree with your post. I like digg because it is simple. Don't add in anything it does not need. It got popular for being unique not like every other website around.

Gary Glitter, July 1, 2007

Interesting. Unfortunately digg will probably implement all of these features but do it in some stupid manner. (i.e. the way they built their Video/Podcast area)

theking, July 1, 2007

How about automatic banning of immature morons?

Neosapience, July 1, 2007

To RFJason

Pictures communicate more information than words do. Our visual cortex is far more complex than our language center. Learn yourself some biology.
There simply needs to be an entry for email addresses under our user profiles. There's a spot for your IM info, but not for your email.
You're a retard, diggs search has no advanced capabilities.
People DO NOT want to read "OMG, THIS POST FREAKING SUX" or "BUY MY VIAGRA!". If there's no moderation, people like you would simply BURY sites like Digg under a pile of crap.
Digg needs an 18+ button simply put. Unlike you, I'm not interested in kiddie p0rn.
I have to agree with this, Digg isn't Myspace.
Minor issue, hardly worth mentioning.
Why do you assume I want to know what top users ate for dinner? Knowing who the top reporters are lets you find the good stories faster. Pervert.
So you work for free? You don't like the big prize of a paycheck you get? Seems like retardation is the only thing on YOUR mind.
There are TONS of free browser plugins that eliminate ads. Don't complain about a problem unless you've LOOKED for a solution. And BTW, there are also plugins that allow you to preview websites.

P, July 1, 2007

Make search #1 on that list and it would be perfect. I can search for the exact title of a dugg story and never find it. The search is absolutely horrible. I remember the search on myspace used to suck, but since they partnered with Google it has been wonderful.

Cadu de Castro Alves, July 2, 2007

Hi!

I developed a simple application to search Digg stories only with pictures, called Digg [Pics] Search: http://www.cadudecastroalves.com/diggpics

It was developed fastly and need to be improved yet. But, I think it should be a great solution to view only Digg pictures stories.

I used Digg API, JavaScript and PHP to get and filter the stories.

Tamar Weinberg, July 2, 2007

"Prizes: Okay this one is a stretch..."

It shouldn't be. All Digg contest API winners got the complete collection of Digg gear.

People who are big in Digg are proud of it. I would love to score a Digg hoodie.

rfjason, July 2, 2007

@neosapience:

Congratulations on proving just how idiotic the OP's ideas really are.

Completely irrelevant. A picture can't tell me the whole story the way an article can. Stop trying to make digg stupid.
Once again, someone has no understanding of how bad spam gets. Not to mention the fact that e-mail is very 20th century. You'll find most college students today prefer sms, im, or other more tightly coupled methods of communication. Stop trying to make digg stupid.
Let me get this straight: I can use the digg search just fine and you can't, therefore I'm retarded. Wow. Now I understand why you're trying to make digg stupid.
All admins do is introduce a bias in the community. Learn to ignore people you don't like. Stop trying to make digg stupid.
The concept of 18+ is completely outmoded. Parents, monitor your kids' activity. Adults, stop goofing off at work. Stop trying to make digg stupid.
Knowing who the top posters are creates an elitist environment, counter to the community. This isn't neosapience.digg.com, it's digg.com. Stop trying to make digg stupid.
Face it: prizes are retarded. Instead of wasting money trying to lure users with the least cost-effective method possible, just focus on making digg an efficient, tight, reliable news site. Innovate where necessary, streamline where possible. Stop trying to make digg stupid.
Only communist geeks use ad-block plug-ins. Everyone else understands commerce. Adding bizarro preview functions to digg only adds to its bloat, not its usefulness. See also: ask.com. Stop trying to make digg stupid.

To sum up: STOP TRYING TO MAKE DIGG STUPID.

Michael D, July 7, 2007

Some great suggestions were made so far, I also think Digg should divide the site up into more categories often I post news stories about finance however they get lost in business. Also, they should have a resubmission process for sites that they view as Spam. I tried posting a great piece I found on ezinearticles.com, however Digg would not post it, I was able to find the article reposted an another site, I linked to that site instead and the story did very well on Digg.

jp!, July 12, 2007

I hate that if I am not signed in & digg an article, after login they completely forget what I was doing before I signed in. Its the #1 reason I don't digg more articles and it would take maybe no time to fix.

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Jen Sardam, September 26, 2007

I've been thinking about how Digg could improve too, lately. And the main thing I'd like to see are more categories. Often, my digged articles don't even come close to fitting into the categories that Digg offers, and I have to go with one that doesn't even do it justice.

Jen Sardam, September 26, 2007

It's great that Digg decided to make some changes since this article was posted and move more toward a social networking model. Maybe they began listening to their users? And I'm happy to see they ignored such flamers as RFJASON

What's with people that just want to spread hate and push an opinion when they don't even understand what they're talking about? We have this amazing tool called the Internet at our fingertips, connecting us, teaching us new things every day, but some people would rather pollute it w/their vile. It's because they have nothing more to offer. Sad.

klira, December 23, 2007