Much has been said in the ongoing Internet battle between Digg and Reddit for social bookmarking supremacy. But until now, I have not deigned to weigh in with my significant influence and powerful insight for fear that it would unduly sway the debate. OK, in reality, I’ve just been afraid of being labeled an uber-nerd for being so into social bookmarking sites.
To save time, let me say right off that bat that I am absolutely obsessed with Reddit. I love it. Seriously, my wife is jealous. Digg, not so much. But if I was on a desert island with a computer terminal that only let me log onto Digg, I would still be happy. That’s because I have so much fun with social bookmarking.
I get such a kick out of it because I used to be a journalist and social bookmarking captures one of my favorite parts of the job: giving people something that they want to read. I wrote for the Associated Press in Jerusalem for a while and it was an amazing thrill to see a story you wrote explode across the Internet in a blaze of controversy. Sometimes I almost felt like an arsonist.
As the online marketing director at Advent Creative in little old Logan, Utah, I don’t get to write high-profile stuff like that anymore, but I can still start Internet fires thanks to sites like Reddit and Digg. All I have to do is find something that I think people will care about and bookmark it. Then I sit back and watch people’s reactions to it. What could be more fun?
Two of the most used social bookmarking sites are Digg and Reddit, and for the most part there is a huge cultural divide between them. As I stated before, I’m a Redditor, through and through. (Please don’t think less of me when you visit the WTF subreddit.) Here’s why I like Reddit more than Digg:
1. Reddit is Funnier
Reddit is full of snarky smart alecs, which I enjoy immensely. Digg seems to be much more formal. @heydebhenry agrees with me on this. I sent out a tweet asking for feedback yesterday on the subject and she wrote: “reddit. Better sense of humor. More useful and timely info.” Which brings me to my second point:
2. Reddit has more useful and timely info
At least that’s the way it seems to me. The reason for this is that Reddit has a great variety of subject-oriented subreddits that helps organize the information better. For instance, there’s a section dedicated just to bacon. How wonderful is that? Warning: there are also sections that I’m not entirely sure are legal. Reddit lets any user create their own subject, which accounts for this very democratic and sometimes disturbing diversity. Digg’s subject groups are rigid and fairly useless for me. On the other hand, Digg doesn’t have to worry about someone starting a category like “F*** You Spez,” a user-generated category on Reddit dedicated to lambasting Spez, one of the Reddit founders.
3. I have more luck on Reddit
I’ll be honest, Reddit just works better for me as a submitter. Recently, I worked with a client and showed them how to use Reddit and Digg. They had some phenomenal success with getting on the front page of Digg a few times. These spikes in traffic were much higher than the spikes that came from getting on the front page of Reddit. However, over time, Reddit was a much more significant source of traffic because they had small success on a regular basis. Plus the comments left on the site from Redditors were much funnier.
4. Reddit has an alien
Enough said.
I suppose that in at least one category Digg and Reddit are absolute equals: double letters. Apparently in the world of social bookmarking, poor spelling is cool. By some criteria, however, Digg even outcompetes Reddit. Here are a few:
1. Design
Reddit looks like some crappy website that your 13-year-old nephew built for an after school programming club. It’s harsh, but true. Reddit looks like crap. Digg on the other hand has a pretty sleek, web 2.0-ish look and feel. @lozzola brought this up on Twitter when she wrote: “Digg- appears more visible/utilized (at least what i read) but more important.. it’s more aesthetically pleasing.” She’s right. Digg looks way better than Reddit, and design is important.
2. Digg is more popular
I know that it’s always fun to hate popular things. I remember in elementary school hating the New Kids on the Block just because all the girls were obsessed, but secretly I couldn’t get “Hanging Tough” out of my head. (You know it’s true.) It’s the same with Digg. It gets more traffic, more eyeballs, and by virtue of that, it can be more effective and salient in certain contexts.
3. Nobody has ever ridiculed me on Digg
Digg is a friendly place. Reddit is like Lord of the Flies. More than once I’ve wasted my time arguing with idiot trolls in the comments of Reddit. While Digg still has trolls, it is decidedly more civil. If you want to be an active commenter on Reddit, you’ve got to have thick skin.
Conclusion
In the end, I think it comes down to personality. For whatever, I connect with the weirdos on Reddit better than I connect with the weirdos on Digg. I still use both, however, and would be sad if either ceased to exist. I’ll leave you with this fascinating video that SEOmoz made two years ago. It’s a discussion that starts with the question, “Will Reddit be more popular than Digg in two years?” Enjoy.
SEOmoz VidCast 2 - Digg Vs. Reddit - Watch a funny movie here