New Digg launches on Monday

The new version of Digg is being launched on Monday. TechCrunch - who else - got the scoop and have gone to town with some preview screen shots and a podcast interview with Digg's founders, which is well worth a listen if you're interested in the whole Digg phenomenon / model.

As a news addict and social media fan, I think I understand how those people who queue overnight for tickets to the first night of Star Wars or to buy the latest version of their favourite games console feel about an hour before opening time. Just can't wait to get my mitts on Digg 3.0 (as the Digg team refer to the new version).

Here's a shot of the categories on the new version of Digg - suggest you take a look at TechCrunch for some more.

Some of the new features that stood out for me were:

• The site has been completely redesigned and will have six "containers" groups of topics bundled together, which will be Technology, Science, World & Business, Gaming, Entertainment and Videos.
• The new website will also have an area for videos with the aim of making Digg a "clearing house for all things YouTube, Google Video and Yahoo Video"
• It looks like you will be able to create a see your network of contacts / friends interests on a "dashboard" in Digg - this social feature will reflect on the stories you see (i.e. how many of your friends had voted for the story).

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch says:

Digg is looking more and more like the newspaper of the web, and is challenging even the New York Times on page views (Digg surpassed rival Slashdot long ago).

Too right, and with the news categories they are adding, Digg's going to start bringing in a whole load of news junkies.

Here's some headline stats that show the incredible reach, power and continuing growth of the website:

• 7- 800,000 unique visitors a day
• 8.5 million uniques a month
• 9.5 million page views per day
• Bigger than the New York times
• Doubling traffic and page views every two months
• At the moment 95% of users are in the United States (rest of majority are Japan, UK and spread out all over the world).
• Digg has just 15 employees.

technorati tags: digg, techcrunch