Digg.com losing popularity (Timeline w/PIC)



by Erling L. Andersen (erling at norskide.no)

Since Digg.com first saw daylight in December 2004, it has gained tremendous popularity and worldwide critical acclaim - establishing social media as a viable journalistic platform. This year, Digg also saw the arrival of its one-millionth member. But behind the scenes, controversy has loomed. Digg has been accused of censorship, allowing "Bury-squards" to roam free, not listening to its users and not doing enough to stop paid Diggs. How has this affected Digg's main asset - its traffic?


Digg LEFT:
To the left, the following Alexa graph illustrates Digg.com's rise to fame - since it's humble beginning in December 2004.

As seen on the graph, Digg.com experiences an explosive growth in April/May 2006 - which lasts until the end of 2006. From that point on, trouble arises for our favorite social media website... (see 2007 breakdown below)

Digg

As seen from the graph, Digg.com has lost nearly half of its traffic from its glory-days towards the end of 2006. No doubt, Kevin Rose's creation is facing stiff competition from other web2.0 startups such as Reddit, Stumbleupon, del.ico.us and others - whilst struggling with unruly members, Digg-fraud/spam and more. Question is - to combat further loss of traffic, what will Kevin Rose do to improve Digg.com in the future?

Or is it already too late?