Topic > The Rise and Fall of the Digg Platform

Since Facebook was founded in 2004, many other social platforms have quickly become extinct. However, contrary to popular belief, this is not because these other platforms are not trying hard enough. In fact, sometimes this happens because they are trying too hard. For example, as Digg's popularity has increased, designers have decided to repeatedly update the website to satisfy their users. Unfortunately, this soon led to “loss of familiarity and ease of use [which] led many people to abandon the site.” By making the site unknown, users became irritable and no longer wanted to stick around. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Originally, Digg was a platform where users could share and discover links to different websites with interesting content. Users could also “dig” pages, similar to the way Facebook users can “like” certain content. If they decided to "bury" a page, however, it would no longer appear in their newsfeed and would be pushed down or simply disappear from most other people's newsfeeds as well. The website also gives people the ability to comment on others' stories, reply to comments, upvote or downvote comments, and view the most popular users. Although the idea was originally very democratic as anyone could vote, it eventually morphed into what Raphael M. described as an “oligarchy.” " Since the power users had so many followers, every time they posted a link, they got so many "digs" that their post appeared at the top of everyone's newsfeed. It wasn't long before the posts from these power users took over the most of the first page, leaving only 44% to those users who were not in the top 100. When Digg was first released in 2004, its popularity grew rapidly, until its success peaked in 2009 year since Digg launched, the website already had 25,000 registered users, by 2006 that number had more than tripled, and by 2009, at the height of its popularity, Digg had approximately 43 million registered users and “attracted over 236 million visitors every year.” In 2010, the website was worth around $175 million. However, “Popularity” went to their heads and they got a little emotional with the user interface and profile updates. It wasn't long before Digg's popularity began to decline at a steady rate. In 2009, Digg was forced to lay off 7 people, or about 10% of its staff, and in 2010 another 10% were laid off. There are several reasons why Digg failed. “According to analysts and industry insiders, it was a combination of factors, including changes to Digg's user experience and its failure to mature in a way that captures mainstream users.” different layout, no such incident occurred. Instead, the drastic change in both appearance and content made users feel as if they had no connection to this previously popular website. This is one of the many reasons why staying consistent is one of the most important aspects of gaining and maintaining user trust and making them not only want to come back, but feel compelled to do so. Due to Digg's failure to do this, however, people quickly lost interest, and it wasn't long before they gave up all hope of the website returning to its previous layout. Although many people could say that the website was.