As the news-recommendation site Digg grows in usage and content, its developers are adding features to help users filter what they might want to read.
Users can add others to their friends list and see at a glance what stories they've been recommending or commenting on — "the idea being that you and your friends might have shared someinterests in likes and dislikes,'' said Jay Adelson, Digg's chief executive.
These user profile pages became available last week. Later this year, Digg will introduce additional ways to help find stories of interest, including the triggering of e-mail alerts for items that meet the user's criteria and tools for recommending stories based on the user's past activities and friends.
"It becomes a much more personalized, customized experience that is much more relevant to you and your interests,'' Adelson said. "With 7,000 to 10,000 submissions a day, we needed additional layers of filtering."'
Digg is part of a trend in tapping the collective wisdom of a community to uncover items that might otherwise be hard to find.
Begun as a site that ranks and displays technology news based on recommendations from its users, Digg expanded last summer to include video and other topics, such as business and entertainment. A section for images is coming soon.
Digg users who find items they like, or "dig," can submit it to the site by providing the Web address and writing a short title and description. If enough other users vote in its favor, it bumps up to the front page or to a topical section. Items that don't get enough votes are simply forgotten over time.
