There is little doubt in my mind that Digg's significant contribution to making social media more conversational is questionable think the company has a great future. I've had a subscription to it since just after they first came out.
But over time, I found myself using it yes and yes. I just opened my Digg folder and realized I had not even looked inside for over a month. Here's what's wrong with it for me:
Personal relevance is more important to me than mass popularity. I like the idea of people voting. The concept has done wonders online for eBay. In fact, the concept of voting thumbs up or down on people, products and politicians has proved to be a pretty good thing in the real world.
But when it comes to choosing what I read and what is relevant to me, I'm only interested in opinions from people i know and trust. I may be in one demographic. you may be in another. I may like opera and you may like Hip Hop or BeBop.
Digg's top vote getting content frequently does not interest me. That which does I find without using Digg. In fact, in the old fashioned days when i read lots of magazines and newspapers, I rarely read the most popular publication. I respected the New York Times much more than I did the National Enquirer, which at the time had a larger circulation.
Several companies have tried to make it easier to find user defined relevance in news searching. Personal Bee is one that looks good to me, but despite it's name it does not seem to have generated the buzz it needs to become a powerhouse.
I think it is very, very hard to let people find what is relevant to them and for a company to do that for masses of people. I look forward to using any tools that can help me find stuff that I personally consider either interesting or useful.
