I do not consider my self an avid social media user but I do follow what's going on, and some recent developments have been really interesting from a business perspective.
Few months ago, leadership of social media site Digg.com decided to make few radical changes, hoping to increase the popularity of the site through this makeover.
They first changed the interface but unfortunately instead of being original they just copied Facebook. And then they decided to allow publishers to submit feeds for their stories so they can be auto posted, which effectively was a kick to the head of submitters, who were the core of the Digg success. And finally they wiped the old database, pretty much finishing them off.
Here is compete.com traffic report which shows what happened to Digg.com since the changes in August.
To confirm what the chart is suggesting, few days ago I monitored an article get to the front page of Digg. Result was less than 2,000 visitors total. A year ago that number would probably be around 20,000.
It brings the obvious question: How in the world they failed to analyze the consequences of the changes they are making, which would effectively spell the beginning of doom for one of the most popular websites in the world? Did they not have enough resources? Or not enough time? Old Digg was doing just good, why change it without a sound plan? What did bring this urge? Would really like to know.
And then there is this another company, Google. They are trying to get into the whole social media game at all cost. I never seen anyone try so hard.
Look at all these Google's social 'attempts': Google Latitude (does anyone in the world use this?), Google Buzz (landed them a lawsuit) , Google Wave (one day glory), Google Orkut (oh boy), Google Friend Connect (Google friend what?)...
On the other hand, Google gave the world technology like Google Docs, Chrome Browser, Google Analytics, Gmail, Google Reader and Google Maps. This is all state of the art and they seem to have incredible talent to understand and apply technology.
But they fail miserably when it comes to socialization. Typical geeks.
The hottest trend in the industry right now is location based social networking, for example sites like Foursqaure. Simple, attractive, social. And guess what? They all rely on Google's technology underneath - Google Maps.
Really funny how, even when you have all the resources in the world at your disposal, it is still possible to have leadership blindness.
Suggested reading:
- Microsoft vs Google – Bing, LookingGlass, what’s next?
- Impending demise of Google world
- Spread your wings, fly the Flock
Posted in: Startups
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3 Comments
So good to know that still some excellent writers are there who do good research before saying something. It makes the info authentic and real. Thanks buddy.
Now digg has even copied the notification strategy of facebook. Just like that. Why again? Don't know - the team might be thinking this will bring the golden age back. I doubt though.
As you have mentioned above yeah, the digg traffic was terrific. I must say that. Day before yesterday - a very controversial sub which popped out to the front page did give just 3k visits. I think the guys must be cursing the day they thought to re-form the service. But still, they have got time. Almost 60% of the powerdiggers/regular digg users expecting some positive changes. Lets see. Again, a wonderful article. Have a great day!
MkHms..
Just a note about Google. They already have very successful social media tools like YouTube and Blogger. Even FeedBurner can be considered to fall in the social media tools category. Though, they were acquired and not created by Google. But it doesn't matter, I kinda like "Googalizing" tools and products :)
I must admit, I have been spending far too many hours on Digg and I simply couldn't believe what they did with the new Digg V4 in comparision to the old V3. I truly felt very sorry for the entire Digg team and millions of their regular users. Yes, that was a clear mistake of their top leadership and nobody else.