Netscape launched in beta their Digg clone today and I must admit, I like it.
Using human editors they call anchors to help maintain the flow of stories on the home page, in addition to its participant base posting and voting stories up or down is a winning combination. There needs to be some dedicated force in any effort like this to be successful and Netscape's is fairly transparent, whereas everyone argues over how Digg works on a daily basis.
More at TechCrunch and The New York Times. The behind the scenes photo at Jason Calacanis's captures the moment.
And look who from Philly Future, is already a top contributor.
In related news, Yahoo sets its sights on citizen journalism:
"Not every news story will be the London bombings, but news of local and regional importance happens all the time," said the source. "A small plane crashes near a beach. By the time the news reporters get there, the plane is under 50 feet of water and the pilot swam safely ashore."Chances are very good that someone on that beach has a video camera and recorded that event as it happened," added the source.
Yahoo hopes to become the best-known brand name in citizen journalism.
..."Citizen journalism will change the world," said the source.
The software that drives a site like Digg or the new Netscape is fairly simple to develop. Especially now that patterns are emerging among sites that are similar in focus and scope. Making it scale to thousands and millions of users is another matter however.
In the end it's the team behind such efforts, the procedures that drive them, design (well they do look kinda a like don't they?), and most importantly, the community that participates in them, that are the differentiators.
Expect to see many, many new services along these lines to emerge as the barriers to entry come down. Expect them to focus on specific topic spaces that are undeserved by those who attempt to go for the biggest slices of participants. The Long Tail will have an effect here, as it does in all things web.
there IS no substitute!
Karl - imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. No worries mate, there IS NO substitute for Philly Future.
I read blogs all over the country, and in my not so humble opinion, this IS the best "webpaper"
Bring 'em on I say, it merely concretes this site as a forerunner of citizen jurnalism
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