In case you missed it Delicious redesigned (see above) and they took a page from both Netscape and digg.
From digg they borrowed the prominent number of votes/bookmarks, and from Netscape they borrowed the thumbnail image with each story.
The irony of course is that digg was inspired by the delicious bookmark, and Netscape was inspired by both netscape, digg, and reddit (which doesn't get enough credit in my book--their services is really great). Of course, when we launched everyone was like "you stole digg's idea!" I found this very entertaining since Kevin at digg is always a standup guy and credit Josh at delicious with the entire idea for digg!
The bottom line is that no one has any ownership over the concept of voting and social news--we're all standing on the shoulders of the first wave of slashdot, furl, and fark.
The thing I love about this industry, and the competition in it, is that we all make each other better. digg, Netscape, delicious, and reddit are all innovating at a faster rate, and a huge company like TimeWarner/AOL coming into the space with the new Netscape does nothing but validate the space.
Folks used to make a big deal about Nick Denton and I being in competition with each other back in the Weblogs, Inc. vs. Gawker days. The truth is that Weblogs, Inc. made Nick get more focused, and both teams built the space. Almost every advertisers that Nick convinced to advertise on Gizmodo wound up on Engadget and vica versa. Today media buyers frequently do an Engadget/Gizmodo buy.
That's the next phase of the "battle" between the social news sites: convincing advertisers to come into the space. I've started making the rounds and explaining the opportunity to media buyers. Every time I explain Netscape to them I'm paving the way digg, reddit, and delicious to get the same advertiser--and that's great. I'm sure John Battelle is out there pitching digg, and every time someone makes a buy on digg they are primed to understand and buy on Netscape and reddit.
It's a beautiful, beautiful thing...
1. Sure, NOW you say that - doesn't sound like the circa 1996 Jason (grin).....
Posted at 10:17AM on Sep 7th 2006 by Tom W.