Mashable is reporting today on Kevin’s surprise visit (via video link) to the TheNextWeb conference in Amsterdam and his plans for the future of Digg. Here are my thoughts on Kevin’s plans and how I think it may not be the best decision for the Digg community.
Kevin essentially announced that Digg is working on something big that will possibly be released in the next 6 months to a year which will change the site in a significant way. Basically they plan to increase Digg’s exposure by increasing the categories on the site to include everything from restaurant reviews, products, pictures and pretty much everything else you can get your browser directed to.
The addition of a pictures section makes perfect sense. The Digg community has asked for this section many times now and has promoted several stories to the site’s front-page in the hopes that the Digg team would listen to them. Now that it’s in the works, the community will rejoice.
In addition to this, it seems like the features Kevin promised last February are also going to be release around the same time line. You might recall that after removing the list of top Diggers, Kevin made the following remarks:
Now, as the site has matured and we regularly get 5,000+ content submissions per day, we believe there are better ways to discover new friends based on your interests and what you’re digging. So if you have been digging stories about digital cameras and Oolong tea, you will be introduced to other top users with those interests… We plan on rolling this out in the coming months along with features and programs that do a better job of rewarding positive contributions to the Digg community.
