There seems to be a paradigm shift going on over at Digg that hearkens to the cries of users and publishers alike longing for the glory of old. It would appear that for the first time in over a year, Digg senior management is not only listening to the users, they’re acting upon what they’re hearing. Anyone who has followed knows that I’ve been extremely critical of Digg from a few weeks before they launched V4 until very recently. For the first time in over 7 months, I’m strongly encouraged about Digg’s future. Digg heard. MORE >>

If you were a top Digg user, you had clout (not klout, that’s for newbies, stick with me here) in the newly emerging Web 2.0 Digg, the once frontrunner of the pack, started mindlessly catering to the publishers only. And now Digg’s been sold. Digg has been sold to BetaWorks for 500k (ok maybe more like 16million if you count the IP rights with LinkedIn and Washington Post ). Don’t forget one of the biggest potential moments for Digg with a whopping $200 million Google  acquisition that was rumored to be on the table. Early Times. world. MORE >>

Regardless of what anyone at Digg says, this was just wrong. Below is my version of the definition as it fits with what Digg has done: In social media, a bait and switch is a form of fraud in which the website putting forth the fraud lures in users by promoting their service as a portal to great content, then reveals to the user that the functionality has been changed but that substitute content is available. We were pulled in because it was easy to use, helped to promote strong content, and displayed the source to everyone who clicked on it, Digg user or not. Blast. MORE >>

The rise of Reddit and the steady decline of Digg have been well documented. Anecdotally we’ve all seen Reddit gain in prominence at a time when Digg has struggled to maintain its relevancy. So I pulled the 2009-2011 Reddit and Digg referral figures for selection of 12 major magazine and Web-only content sites. First a look at the total combined traffic for all 12 sites in 2009-2011: The trend lines tell the story loud and clear: traffic from Reddit is way up and traffic from Digg is way down. Conversely Digg dropped from 31+ million in 2009 down to 4.6 MORE >>

TechCrunch's Sarah Lacy practically writes an epitaph today for Digg following news that the company's cofounder Kevin Rose, the face of the company since its inception, had resigned to pursue a new and unannounced startup. The backdrop of her story is a detailed article she wrote on Rose and the Digg phenomenon back in 2006, when she, then writing for BusinessWeek, placed Kevin on the cover with a youthful grin and headline blaring how he was worth $60 million. That Kevin had shifted priorities away from Digg some time ago was no secret to those who watched. Same people. MORE >>