Digg Adds New Video and Podcasting Tools

Posted on December 18, 2006

Digg has a post that announces "features o' plenty" on Digg.com. These new features include special Digg sections for videos and for podcasts as well as top ten lists for both videos and podcasts.

Videos Enhancements
Aside from giving Videos their own position in the top navigation, we have added a couple cool features: Top 10 hottest videos, and on-Digg video previews. Simply click any video with a play icon to get lightbox window in which you can preview and Digg the video.
Podcasting
Now you can Digg your favorite podcast series and individual podcast episodes. Not only can you see a list of the most popular podcasts by section, you can also dive into any individual podcasts to see the most Dugg individual episodes. And don't forget - every time you Digg a podcast or podcast episode that is bookmarked in your profile and shared with your friends.

NewTeeVee says the focus on video makes sense but they aren't sure about the podcasting.

While addition of video digging is understandable - watching online video is one of the fastest growing activities on the Internet - it is hard to fathom Digg's efforts when it comes to podcasting. Despite lot of hype, podcasting hasn't gone mainstream. Listening to a podcasts takes a lot more time than reading a story, or watching a 120-second video.
"Digg is about sharing, and if people want to share podcasts, we want to give the ability to do that," says Adelson, and adds that it was one of the most requested features by Digg users. We don't give it much of a chance, but then we might be wrong. However, the podcast digging could eventually result in Digg expanding to say - music or photos. Now that could be fun!

The video and podcasts tools will work only if people go there and they like the videos and pocasts they find -- otherwise they will use other filters to help them find interesting videos to watch. There are several video categories to filter by including animation, comedy, educational, gaming, music, people and sports. However, if people aren't pleased by the quality of the videos in these categories they will use something other than Digg to find videos.