Digg.com has introduced its own lab, named (accurately, if not creatively) Digg Labs. This new addition will allow visitors to test features and consider concepts before they are introduced to the main Digg site. User feedback could also prevent things from making the transition from Digg Labs to Digg.
The site describes Digg Labs as “a broader (and deeper) view of Digg.” It has only two different “visualizations” at present, but these “look beneath the surface of the Digg community’s activities.”
The first, Digg Stack, “shows diggs occuring in real time on up to 100 stories at once. Diggers fall from above and stack up on popular stories. Brightly colored stories have more diggs.”
Digg Swarm “draws a circle for stories as they’re dugg. Diggers swarm around stories, and make them grow. Brightly colored stories have more digs.” Frankly, this display seemed a little too “busy” to me, and not particularly easy to use.
Both visualizations offer three “modes”: “all activity, popular, and newly submitted stories.”
Digg also wants you to know that “the projects currently in Digg Labs are the results of collaboration with Digg partner Stamen Design. As the project matures,” the note continued, “we’ll be releasing a public API to allow outside developers access to this data.”
Should you decide to scope out Digg Labs, Stamen Design has posted a small disclaimer. “The servers are running hot hot hot right now, so if you see some funkiness over there, please be gentle.” Digg has since added more servers, though, so you should be able to have at it.
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Doug is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest eBusiness news.
