We’re excited to announce our next Digg Dialogg guest, technology luminary Marissa Mayer from Google. Marissa joined Google as their first female engineer in 1999 and was among the first 20 employees. She is currently their Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, and has been responsible for leading & developing products including Google Search, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Earth and iGoogle. Fortune magazine recently named Marissa as one of the 50 most powerful women in the world.
From now until Friday, July24th at 12:00pm PDT, you can submit & Digg questions that you’d like to hear answered. Kevin will be conducting the interview, and with the recent buzz about the launch of the new Google Chrome OS, we think this should be a great discussion.
In case you’ve missed previous Digg Dialoggs, you have the opportunity to submit and Digg questions that we then pose to influential leaders and luminaries. Check out some of the past ones on the page, including Al Gore, Trent Reznor, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Richard Branson.
Submit and vote on your favorite questions on the Digg Dialogg page from now until Friday at Noon PDT; we’ll be posting the full interview on Wednesday, July 29th at Noon PDT.
I wanted to clear up some confusion created over the past couple of days surrounding the DiggBar, specifically how Digg short URLs work. As we’ve stated in the past, the DiggBar is meant to streamline the Digg experience and provide our registered users with the opportunity to catch up on comments, related stories and additional source content. Our strategy with Digg short URLs is to facilitate sharing of Digg content, not to be a conventional redirection service.
Last week, we made a change that began directing non-logged in traffic generated from Digg short URLs to Digg story pages where they can view the comments and related content. In response to feedback, all short URLs that were generated *before* today will now behave as they did prior to last week’s change by taking the user directly to the source content. Logged-in Digg users will continue to be directed to the source content with the DiggBar (if they have it turned on). Of course, if the content has never been submitted to Digg, viewers will continue to be sent directly to the source.
As always, keep the feedback coming as we continue to think about ways to enhance the user experience and evolve the product.
Last fall, we took your questions to the Presidential Candidates, and we’re excited to announce that we’re doing it again, this time in an exclusive interview with President Obama. We’re partnering with ABC News for a special edition of Primetime entitled “Prescription for America”, where Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson will be sitting down with the President to discuss his views on health care reform.
Since this is a topic that many of you are interested in, we’re asking you, the Digg community, to submit your questions on the future of America’s health care system. Some of them will be chosen for the live interview.
Submit your question in the comments section here. Digg up the questions you like and bury the ones that just don’t cut it.
This upcoming Digg Dialogg is sure to be one of the more entertaining and unpredictable ones we’ve ever done. We’ll be interviewing Sacha Baron Cohen in character as Austrian model Bruno next week. We’ll post the interview on the Digg Dialogg pageTuesday, June 30th at 10:00am PDT.
Bruno is the über-famous Austrian model and host of fashion & celebrity show Funkyzeit. He’s releasing his full-length film, Bruno, worldwide on July 10th. Known for his fearless interviewing skills and impeccable fashion sense, he recently made a pretty dramatic entrance at the MTV Movie Awards.
For those of you unfamiliar with Digg Dialogg, it gives you the opportunity to submit and vote up questions that will be posed to influential leaders, change agents, luminaries, and in this case an awesome entertainer and comedian. Check out previous Digg Dialogg episodes with Nancy Pelosi, Trent Reznor, Al Gore, John Boehner, Richard Branson and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Submit and vote on your favorite questions on the Digg Dialogg page by Wednesday, June 24th at 12noon PDT. And as always, let us know what guests you’d like to see in the future.
Today, we’re announcing our plans to roll out a new advertising platform — Digg Ads. Digg Ads will give you more control over which advertisements are displayed on Digg. The more an ad is Dugg, the less the advertiser will have to pay. Conversely the more an ad is buried, the more the advertiser is charged, pricing it out of the system.
The platform will launch as a pilot in a few months, and it will be an ongoing work in progress as we learn more from the Digg community and adjust the system. We’re still in very early stages of working with advertisers and building the system, but we wanted you to be the first to hear about our plans.
Digg Ads will appear alongside stories in the river. The sponsored content will look and feel similar to regular Digg content, but will be clearly marked as sponsored. It may link to stories, video trailers, independent product reviews – many of the same types of content you see on Digg every day. The goal here is to give advertisers a way to present content related to their brands and get immediate input on whether it’s relevant to the Digg audience, or not. Here’s an example of what the ads might look like:
Our goal for Digg Ads is to create a better experience by giving you more control over advertising content that appears on Digg. You’ll start to see changes on the site in a few months, but we will continue to iterate over the course of the year based on your feedback. This is an exciting step for Digg as we work to create a compelling, innovative advertising experience for our community and the industry at large.
We’re excited to be heading back to New York City on June 4th for our next Meetup. We had a huge crowd last year, so this time around we chose a larger venue – Webster Hall in Manhattan – to make sure you all could attend. We’ll again be featuring a Live Diggnation plus the sounds of Fort Knox Five, Ursula 1000, and a few other surprises & special guests to round out a full evening.
If you’ve not yet been to one of our Meetups, check out some scenes from our last one in Seattle:
Doors open at 7:30, but we’re anticipating another big crowd so are encouraging everyone to arrive early.
Some exciting news here at Digg today. I’m thrilled to welcome Chas Edwards to Digg as our Chief Revenue Officer. Chas will oversee all current and future revenue generation activity for the company. Chas is known in the industry and his experience is perfect for us at this stage of our growth.
As you may know, we’ve been very focused on building an internal sales organization at Digg as part of our monetization strategy. Over the past several months, we’ve assembled a very talented direct sales team that will continue to be led by Tom Shin. Tom’s team has hit the ground running with much success and I believe that Chas will be a great addition. Tom Shin will report to Chas and the two will work closely together on Digg’s sales and advertising strategy. In addition, Chas will focus on creating new revenue streams for the company including sponsorships, new advertising programs and channels as well as help to manage our continued relationship with Microsoft.
Chas comes to Digg from Federated Media (FM) where he, together with John Battelle, co-founded and built an incredibly successful media publishing company over the past four years. Prior to FM, Chas held various sales and marketing roles at CNET and Tech TV (a company near and dear to our hearts).
Chas will be transitioning his role at FM over the next few weeks and officially joins Digg on June 22nd. We’re all very excited to have Chas on board and look forward to leveraging his expertise to continue to create an innovative and unique Digg experience for all of you.
Following the excitement of our last Digg Dialogg with Richard Branson, including the infamous fist fight challenge with Stephen Colbert, we are looking forward to mixing it up a bit. Join us for our next Digg Dialogg where we ask Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger the top questions from the Digg Community.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is a world-famous athlete and actor, and most recently, California’s 38th Governor. His notable accomplishments as Governor include the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, a bipartisan agreement to combat global warming. He is also a successful businessman and commits his time to charitable organizations, including the Special Olympics.
For those of you who’ve missed previous interviews, Digg Dialogg gives the community an opportunity to submit and vote up questions posed to influential leaders, change agents and luminaries. Check out previous Digg Dialogg episodes with Nancy Pelosi, Trent Reznor, Al Gore, John Boehner and Sir Richard Branson.
Governor Schwarzenegger should provide an interesting perspective on the economy of Silicon Valley, Proposition 8, the environment, and the upcoming California Gubernatorial race. So be sure to submit and vote for your favorite questions from now until Tuesday, May 26th at 12:00pm PDT on the Digg Dialogg page.
We’ll be asking Governor Schwarzenegger your most popular questions next week. We will also post regular updates to the homepage and the Digg Twitter account to let you know when it’s live.
We’ll be announcing more guests soon. As always, let us know who you’d like to talk to by adding suggestions in the comments.
The Digg team is heading to Seattle next Thursday, May 21st for our first Meetup in the Pacific Northwest. We’ll be convening at Neumos in Capitol Hill to meet fellow Diggers, raise a pint, and check out the band Wallpaper. We’ll also be sharing a a few Digg updates and giving away some Digg iPhone & laptop skins. If you’ve never been to a Meetup, check out some crazy footage from the last one in Austin at SXSW (South by Southwest):
Doors open at 7:30pm, so swing by if you are in town. More details can be found on the Meetups page.
It’s that time again. We’re hosting our next virtual Digg Townhall on Tuesday, May 19th at 5pm PT/8pm ET. It’s been an incredibly busy quarter full of activity here at Digg. We’re looking forward to taking your questions and sharing Digg updates. So please submit and Digg up the questions that you’d like us to address. Kevin and I will respond to the most popular ones live via webcast on the Townhall page. The recorded video will be posted shortly after.
We’re looking forward to talking with you all soon!
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