Say you stumble across a news story you like. You "Digg" it, by clicking a link at the end of the story. The more people who Digg the same story, the higher it rises in the popularity ranking on Digg.com, where other Diggers can read and comment on it. While comments often read more like rants, they serve as an excellent barometer of the issues Web surfers are most interested in. In May, Digg announced plans to collaborate with Facebook, to let users see which of their Facebook friends also have accounts on Digg — as well as which stories they Digg. Next up: a planned recommendation engine that will suggest stories you might like based on your past Diggs. Handy upgrades like these should help keep Digg from getting buried by competitors such as Mixx and Reddit.
—Anita Hamilton