27 August 2010 | Author: J. Morton News Editor

Dig the new Digg? Link-sharing platform launches 'v4'

A new version of the Digg social network has been rolled out, and the updated platform has followed trends set by Facebook and Twitter to maintain its foothold in the social sphere.

A key change to the link-sharing website is a Facebook- and Twitter-style method of following other users' shared content.

"I'm excited to announce that today we opened up the newest version of our Digg platform. We've been working hard on this next evolution of Digg (what we've been calling "v4") and everyone here is really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the changes we've made," Digg CEO Kevin Rose wrote on the site's official blog.

"This redesign is a major revision of our platform - front end to back end - this is just phase one of what will be an on-going, iterative process, involving lots of input from all of you. We'll be pushing out features on a regular basis and tweaking often."

The website could use the redesign to draw in more users, who would likely be used to functions on competing social networks, but according to some tech pundits, its long-term users may need to change their habits as well.

"In order for this to lead to the resurgence Digg needs, user behaviour will need to change, especially among casual users," said Jason Kincaid of TechCrunch.

"The site has long been dominated by power users who account for many of the stories that hit the front page - now there's much more emphasis on what your friends have shared," he said.

"Our goal has always been for Digg to be a place where people can discover and share content and conversations from anywhere on the web," Rose said. "With Digg v4, we are introducing a few things that will make discovering and discussing news a lot better."

Critics have lauded the new platforms ease of submitting links, as well as automatically matching images and descriptions for the link, a la Facebook, though visits to the site following the redesign have been plagued by slow loading times.