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 >>

One of the biggest complaints of Digg has always been in sorting. Newswire, a new Digg feature still in limited beta, appears to be addressing the issue nicely. It’s almost exactly like the Upcoming section except it adds two strong new features: minimum and maximum Digg counts and activity updates without refreshing. This can be very useful for those wanting to use Digg for it’s original purpose – content discovery using the wisdom of the crowd. The Newswire is here to let you slice, dice and explore the freshest content on Digg. MORE >>

There is only one piece of really noticeable news that jumped out to people so far, and that pertains to Twitter. Apparently, the FTC is sick of the paid, viral ads on Twitter. The new rule puts an end to this, requiring Twitter users to be very clear about what is a paid or “sponsored” Tweet. Keep in mind these new rules apply to any short-form digital marketing, Twitter is just the one it applies to most. Original post about Twitter advertising can be found on Wikimotive’s blog under the title, “ Some Advertising Tweets Now Illegal! 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 >>