Common functions of social news sites
I did a brief survey just now of a few of the more well-known social bookmarking—social news, really— sites. My intent was to find commonalities in features and functions in order to assess what’s been done already.
I inspected Digg, Reddit, Del.icio.us, and Newsvine. I did not consider Bloglines, StumbleUpon, nor Technorati because none of those three show links the same way that the others do—they require account creation or other steps before coming directly to links.
Obviously, the most common feature is voting. A registered user can mark his or her approval (or disapproval!) of a bookmark. If the bookmark is liked by enough people in a certain amount of time, the bookmark gets “promoted” to the front page, where it sits until the amount of users voting for the bookmark slows down to a rate at which it is overtaken by other bookmarks with a higher rate of votes.
Each has user registration as a requirement for voting. Non-registered users are permitted to peruse the bookmarks, but they cannot submit nor vote on bookmarks. Registered users generally have control of a limited profile, which optionally lists at least the user’s nickname and web site URL.
On Digg, reddit, and Newsvine, users can comment on bookmarks. While reddit’s and Newsvine’s respective comment systems are fully threaded (meaning that a user can reply to a comment, and another user can reply to that comment, and so on, and it’s visually separated), Digg’s commenting system is limited to two levels of commenting (New comment or reply to a top-level comment only).
Another product, Pligg—an open source CMS that operates much like Digg and Newsvine combined, has these features, as well.
What unique features does each have? Digg has a lot of tools (DiggSpy, SWARM, STACK, etc.) to visualize incoming bookmarks and stories. Newsvine pays its members for generating content (submitting stories/bookmarks, writing columns), thus creating more page views and more advertising revenue. Both Del.icio.us and Newsvine use tags to help users search for stories/bookmarks based on keywords. Digg and Newsvine both have friend systems, where you can add other users to a list of friends and be able to quickly view your friends’ submissions and links on which your friends have voted positively.
Reddit and Del.icio.us are far more lightweight both visually and page load size than the other two. However, DiggRiver is even more lightweight (and meant for mobile phone browsers, actually).
What other features, both common and unique, am I missing? I care little about the size of each community, nor do I care about its stereotypical users’ behavior. I’m focusing on features.
aine:
Newsvine:
Groups – These can be thought of as newspaper sections, as interest groups, as local papers, etc., depending on how they’re being used. These can also be either Public or Private. There is also the possibility of commenting on any content, but having those comments only visible to the members of your Group.
Friends List – Users may also create any number of smaller, more private Friends lists, and comment threads may be limited to the users of those smaller Friends lists.
Watchlists – Users can add tags, authors, groups, or news categories to their Watchlists and be notified when new content is posted.
Greenhouse – New users start out in the Greenhouse and their content will not generally be seen on the front page, and they must be voted up by existing members in order to “go live” on the site. This cuts down on spammers and trolls.
Ad Revenue – Another feature of the ad revenue model is the possibility of donating your revenue to one of several non-profit groups on a list of charities within the Earnings part of the user’s control panel. And while it’s true that you earn 90% of the ad revenue from the pages of content you submit, you can also earn and additional 10% of the ad revenue from any members you have invited to the site.
Games – Currently, there is a Hi-Lo Football Challenge, but in the past we’ve also had World Cup Soccer and other sports. Users who elect to play and make their picks may even walk away with an iPod for a prize.
Newsvine Wire – Newsvine has a number of wire services: Associated Press (throughout the site), Box Office Mojo (movie listings in the Entertainment category), Buddy.tv (in Entertainment), and New Scientist (in Science).
Wall of Vineness – A page honoring the most distinguished users on the site who have been selected by the developers for exceptional recognition in the user community.
20 January 2007, 8:42 pm