There are plenty of news aggregators out there but perhaps one of the most dynamic and under-appreciated is Reddit.
Reddit? Yes, Reddit.
Long seen as Digg’s little cousin, Reddit is on a major roll while Digg trundles its way toward irrelevance.
The question is why has Reddit surged ahead while Digg has stumbled. In an interesting article, Slate’s Farhan Manjoo suggests it’s the enthusiastic and engaged nature of “a real and vibrant” community, particularly its willingness to get involved in political issues such as SOPA.
Manjoo also contends Reddit has thrived because it has become more than a service that just aggregates links from external sites.
What’s particularly interesting about Reddit is how it has thrived within the corporate bosom of Conde Nast, which acquired Reddit in 2006. It is rare to see a startup get stronger and bigger after becoming part of a big empire. In many cases, a startup flounders because its energy and entrepreneurial culture evaporates within the corporate confines.
Maybe Conde Nast’s best decision was allowing Reddit to maintain its uniqueness and separate identity rather than trying to make it part of the fold. Yes, Reddit has had a redesign but it’s still pretty similar to what it was when Conde Nast acquired it.
As important, Reddit’s community has been allowed to participate, operate and be an active part of Reddit’s progression, which is pretty impressive given Reddit is part of a large and established media empire. It’s like Reddit has the best of both worlds: it has the backing of a large company but the culture and community of a startup.
As for why Reddit has rolled and Digg has lost its mojo, it’s hard to tell. Maybe Digg made some strategic mistakes that alienated users. Maybe the market shifted on Digg as social media gained more traction.
At the very least, Digg vs. Reddit would make for a fascinating case study or even a PhD thesis on the tale of two aggregators.
Does it strike you that the Web and social media have been on the defensive recently, playing the role of victim to the whims of the authorities who are attempting to instill some fairly radical, if not draconian, changes to possibly the greatest tool ever?
Is it just me or are brands more pro-active doing customer service in social media than they do in their actual brick and mortar stores or through their websites?








Social media has given companies and their employees new ways to communicate and engage with key stakeholders such as potential and existing customers but it has also opened up another can of words: the potential to create problems around competitive, regulatory, liability and human relations issues.
The whole world is a Twitter! Whether you get it or not, Twitter is gaining more users and credibility each passing day. This being said, we’ve all had some issues with Twitter so now it is time to brainstorm some solutions.
As Google scrambles to establish a strong social foothold, it has unveiled a new version of its ubiquitous search engine called
Now that we’ve had five or six years of interesting social media campaigns, it is time to ask the question, which are the best and, as important, which ones may have viral capabilities years from now?







