Wisdom of the Crowds
Yes, that sounded like a book title by Paul Surowiecky but I’m referring it to Digg after successfully matched Slashdot and will eventually outdone them. This is a very clear form of the wisdom of the crowds, the thing where web 2.0 should be headed.
It’s not about people telling other people what to submit and what to put on the front page, the old ways that was still used by Slashdot, but to put power on the people’s hand. That’s what web 2.0 is all about. Not the glitzy java script worm (a.k.a. AJAX), but the slick functionality that eases people’s life and build its feature around and towards the people.
Traffic doesn’t directly equal popularity. Slashdot has had a very loyal readership for many years. Digg’s traffic will still go up and down as people discover it.
As for those traffic rankings they’re meaningless. Very few people use Alexa’s toolbar, which is what gathers those stats. You’ll find especially few tech-savvy people, like those on slashdot, using that toolbar.
What matters is opinion. And from what I’ve read most people prefer the quality of posts on Slashdot. Especially after they customize their home page on /., most people find they have to skip over most of digg to find anything they’d really be interested in.