The DiggBar debate has been the talk of the web over the last week or so, since it was launched.
I had talked with Wired.com and praised Digg for the new feature, as it made it easier for Digg users to vote and promote content outside of Digg.com.
It was not until I spoke with Greg Boser at length about the new DiggBar, that I realized the problems it would have for SEO and for the publishers.
Apparently the complaints and suggestions have not gone unnoticed, as Digg has announced today some new changes for the DiggBar that will be coming out over the next week.
The major change is that anyone who is not logged in as a Digg user, will not see the DiggBar, on or off Digg.com. They will instead be 301 redirected to the publisher’s site. Logged in users will see the DiggBar, unless they choose to opt-out through their personal account settings.
This should solve some of the concerns publishers had about Digg not properly passing the link value to the content owner.
Definitely give Danny, Greg, and Matt props the next time you chat with them, as it was their posts and tweets that brought this change about.
Brent, this will indeed take care of any SEO issues with the Diggbar. It's good to know that Digg listened to the input from the SEO community. I just wish whoever they allegedly spoke with at Google prior to launching the bar had given them this advice in the first place.
Phew…I can allow users from Digg back on my blog. This definitely makes me a happy camper. Great decision on their part to change and adapt their product for the better of all.
Definitely a good change. I was talking to a few friends about the problem as well.
Great news indeed. Hard to ignore those fellows' opinions by the way, so probably a great decision for Digg itself too.
Great adjustment on Digg's part. Sometimes it seems the smarter we get, the dumber we get. You would think that the creators of a social media (bookmarking) platform would have been smart enough to consider the repercussions to the diggbar. oh well.