Like any respectable geek, Kevin Rose reads the tech-news site Slashdot religiously. Of course, he also runs the competition. A little over a year ago, when Rose was a 27-year-old host on cable channel G4techTV, he had lunch with Slashdot founder Rob Malda. "So much great stuff can’t make it to your main page," Rose told Malda. "Wouldn’t it be cool if you let your community vote on what’s interesting?" Malda said that his crew was too busy working on other features.
Rose decided to try it himself. Today his site, digg, is nearly as popular as Slashdot. Digg relies on its 150,000 registered users to submit and vote on links. Stories with the most votes, or "diggs," move to the front page. "What we’re really trying to do is level the playing field," Rose says. "Whether you’re a professional blogger or a reporter for CNN, you have the same chance of getting your story in front of a huge audience."
Digg has also helped Rose dig his way back to prominence. He left G4 in May after its owner, Comcast, changed the channel’s focus to videogames. Now his San Francisco startup has 10 employees, and Rose hosts a weekly podcast, Diggnation, with his former TechTV cohost Alex Albrecht. In a bit of vindication, it’s one of the most frequently downloaded shows on iTunes. - Brad Stone
credit Michael Sugrue
What’s news? Kevin Rose’s Web site, digg, let’s you choose.
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