Many journalists don't know what to make of the on-the-rise news aggregation site Digg. Is it a hub for user-generated content? Is it a democratized front page? Is it a threat?
For the uninitiated, Digg is a relatively new concept that allows anyone to submit and rank stories found across the Web. Stories are voted upon ("dugg"), by Digg members. The most popular stories climb the ranks of the Digg hierarchy, eventually landing in Web traffic heaven -- the Digg home page -- if they're deemed worthy by the Digg populace.
Digg started out with a focus on technology, but the site's recent 3.0 launch expanded the topic areas to include science, business, videos, entertainment and gaming.
Some might toss Digg off as a cute news toy, but enterprising Web publishers are quickly discovering that Digg is a powerful publicity tool. A "dugg" story can bring in massive amounts of traffic, which offers both short-term revenue potential and, more importantly, a unique opportunity to expose new readers to a Web site and a news brand.
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