What’s A Digg Killer – MySpace News, AOL Netscape, Google Reader?

I was just reading a short article by a friend about the use of the term "Digg Killer" and how it is used too often and inappropriately. We all have a tendency to compare things, but why is it that everything has to be a Digg or Google killer? I guess there is nothing wrong with comparisons and they are even helpful when trying to describe a difficult concept or startup, but maybe we should all spend more time describing "the thing" than predicting an outcome dependent on some ivory tower that may not even be relevant.

Digg Killer?

Why are we using Digg as an indicator or milestone for anything other than Digg? The article I referenced pointed out several poignant uses of the term "Digg Killer" by some of the Web's most skilled and respected blogger/celebrities. Rather than pointing out that the "tendency exists", I thought it would be interesting to suppose why these comparisons are made. Let's look at some of the articles referenced and see if there are any universal constants to be observed. In these examples the comparative entities are rather competitive, but other interesting variables arise on examining them.

TC and Big Mike

Michael Arrington's article referring to the new Netscape as a "Digg Killer" was one of those mentioned. Without going into some Machiavellian discourse on Michael, let's just consider that TC is the biggest and best, and how it got that way was not some act of random universal karma. Arrington knows what he is doing every time he sits down to the keyboard.

The simple reason terms like these are used is twofold. First, the people at the entity are being engaged into a conversation. Secondly, the notoriety of the target entity (and TC in this case) combined with the news value of the opposing force is pure SEO dynamite. Let's look at Michael's post a little more closely.

In the title and first two paragraphs of this article Michael uses these terms in this frequency: AOL 2, Netscape 3, Netscape.com 3, Digg 1, and Digg Killer 2 times. I am no SEO expert but I bet the keyword density on those 130 or so words is close to 1 in 10. Discounting even this little fact the engagement of the Digg community combined with TC's already massive popularity creates what we might call a "story monopoly" when all factors are considered. If you wanted to find a "Digg Killer" what do you think a search on Google for such a thing would produce? It reveals TC at position one and two followed by several of the other "term users" in succession.

Pete - Mashing Words

At least Pete proposes a question when comparing MySpace News and Digg in the "Killer Game", and the relative Google position of this story is currently 8^th behind several others. Pete also has one of the most influential and visited tech blogs and the wording tendencies hold true here - only the challenger is MySpace News. Pete does not just randomly type articles either, and his usage of words is even more interesting than Michael's. Pete only uses MySpace 7 times in the title and opening paragraphs, followed respectively by Digg twice and Google News twice. The interesting thing is that the article is only 352 words long but contains the term "news" about 25 times. Once again, close to a 1 in 10 ratio.

Scobelized

Robert has an interesting writing style and his "Digg Killer" article concerns Google Reader and Facebook. The occurrence of words in his article are not nearly as heavily weighted as the previous ones, with Digg Killer only being mentioned 4 times, Google Reader 10 times and Facebook Applications 10 times in a 450 word article. The engagement aspect and the title seem important in this case. Think of Robert Scobel engaging Google, Facebook and Digg at one time with all three in the title. Type all three into Google and what do you get? Robert of course, but that is not a good example because not many people would type those into a search would they? However, any combination of Digg or Digg Killer with Google Reader or Facebook results in Robert being in the top 3.

Chicken or Egg?

Were the stories ranked high in part because of the use of this term? Well, here is where the egg vs. chicken dilemma comes into play. Traffic is the name of the game for all these blogs including ours. This is a function of continuing the art of blogging by monetizing for survival.

If I could coin a term that would universally help people see our content (like Web 2.0), then I would use it. Regardless of which came first - the term or the people who use it - the end result is the same. Type "Digg Killer" into a search engine and find a number of prominent bloggers staring you in the face. If 10 percent of Digg's users are looking for the ominous replacement for Digg for whatever reason, where and what would they query for the approaching entity? The best blogs use SEO as well as any of the Web sites they articulate about.

Conclusion

Okay, maybe I am just barking up the wrong tree here - maybe. The point is there is not much that skilled experts like those mentioned miss. I don't think Pete would use the word "news" 20 times in a short story much less a short article unless it produced something. The simple reason the term "Digg Killer" is used is because it is provocative and it produces results. In the final analysis it does not describe anything but itself really. Digg is not something to kill; it is a community of people who find value there. Nothing is going to kill it, but perhaps something will eventually become more popular. Perhaps we should start to recognize Digg as a media outlet and traffic machine - period. The real killer for Digg might be when people stop trying to attract traffic from there by announcing its imminent doom.  

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