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JUNGER
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Member Since: 6/2006Last Seen: 8/31/2006
Member Since: 6/2006Last Seen: 8/31/2006
12 Comments
PrintWould Digg Be Anything Without Kevin Rose? On Brandname Recognition
News Type: Other — Mon Aug 14, 2006 3:51 PM EDT
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Let me start off by saying this, in fear of multiple flames: I have nothing against Digg, Kevin Rose, or the Digg community. I simply have a reasonable, analytical look at the importance of brandnames on products, and Digg happens to be a very good example.
If you aren't familiar with Digg, read the Wikipedia entry. Otherwise, the important thing to know here is that Digg was co-founded by Kevin Rose. Rose, recently proclaimed a $60 million man by Business Week (although he admits he can't afford to buy a couch for his apartment), was a former host of geek/techie fav TechTV.
He amassed a bit of a following on TechTV and after his departure, launching Digg in the winter of 2004. With the current popularity and hype surrounding Digg, I have to wonder: what would Digg be like without Kevin Rose attached to it?
Let's consider a scenario where Digg is created with all of the same functionality as it currently has, but Rose is not a part of the project. Arguably, it would probably follow a similar path to other Web 2.0 sites such as Newsvine, del.icio.us and Reddit. All three sites have their core audiences, but none are as lively, hyped-up or discussed as much as Digg.
I think it's fair to say that Rose's following from his TechTV days has checked out and joined the Digg community (myself included), which has obviously had a huge impact on the site's popularity. TechTV fanboys know his name and face, and that's brought them over to Digg.
So what's the point? Rose is a brandname. Would the Digg community be as involved, active and, well, large, if Rose's brandname was not attached to the project? I don't think so. But his established name means something, especially when the site gets press in non-tech publications.
It's sort of like why we all watched when Michael Jordan went to play baseball. It didn't matter that he sucked -- he was Michael Jordan. Now, Digg is obviously better than Jordan playing baseball, but the point is that it has received a bit of a boost from Rose's namepower. That's not a bad thing at all -- he's obviously earned the following and fanboys that want to be on his bandwagon, and that's more power to him.
But what would Digg be without his brandname attached to it? It's a perfectly legitimate question.
What do you think? Leave a comment below.
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{"commentId":250441,"authorDomain":"brianford"}
It's sort of like why we all watched when Michael Jordan went to play baseball. It didn't matter that he sucked -- he was Michael Jordan.
Wait a minute -- are you saying that Michael Jordan sucked at Basketball? I hate to say it, but my curiosity as to why you think this completely overshadows my interest in the rest of your article.
(For what it's worth, I know dick about digg. Never used it and have heard little positive about the community.)
{"commentId":250441,"threadId":"36885","contentId":"324671","authorDomain":"brianford"}
- 1 vote
#1 - Mon Aug 14, 2006 4:46 PM EDT{"commentId":250488,"authorDomain":"skulking"}
Brian if you reread that you will see that he says Jordan sucked at baseball not basketball.
{"commentId":250488,"threadId":"36885","contentId":"324671","authorDomain":"skulking"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":250503,"authorDomain":"brianford"}
Heheh -- woops.
(Just goes to show how powerful the mind is -- I saw Michael Jordan and it filled in basketball.)
{"commentId":250503,"threadId":"36885","contentId":"324671","authorDomain":"brianford"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":250538,"authorDomain":"junger"}
{"commentId":250647,"authorDomain":"marilynl"}
By the time I learned about Digg, it's popularity was already established as an alternative to /. I've never heard of Kevin Rose until your article. I've only used Digg as a viewer, looking for interesting seeds on the front page. So, I guess I'd have to disagree with your premise, although I think the brand Digg itself is strong.
{"commentId":250647,"threadId":"36885","contentId":"324671","authorDomain":"marilynl"}
- 3 votes
#2 - Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:10 PM EDT{"commentId":250648,"authorDomain":"cqtech"}
IIRC, Digg was already growing in popularity as an alternative to the entrenched style of sites such as Slashdot; which had already generated a couple of spinoff community sites.
What Digg did at first was not a completely unique idea. Both User-submitted and User-rated sites were already in vogue, but Digg did present a combination of both methods in a usable format that was easy to adopt, and to emulate.
When the digg.com site was first mentioned on a This week in Tech (TWIT) podcast, it was not even known then that Kevin Rose was affiliated with the site. It did gain in popularity once his connection to the site was revealed on a later TWiT podcast, but much of that can be attributed to the secondary interest from listeners of the podcast who were also former viewers of TechTV.
Digg would have become popular either way, due to a user-friendly format and a convenient alternative to other URL and Tech News aggregate sites, but its growth would probably not have been
as explosive without the connection to an already established online and media personality.
I would not attribute that to Kevin Rose's name as a brand though. Keep in mind that this was also shortly after Rose had negotiated his (amicable?) split with the G4 network, marking him as the last of the "original" TechTV alumni to depart from the show formerly known as The Screen Savers, and generating some followup interest from the both the TechTV and G4 fanbase as to what he was moving on to next. A bit of celebrity did come into play with the knowledge that Rose was also a regular user and contributor to the site (along with other Digg founders), and with the later following generated by the Diggnation podcasts.
So the brand name appeal may well have been generated in line with the growth and promotion of the site.
{"commentId":250648,"threadId":"36885","contentId":"324671","authorDomain":"cqtech"}
- 1 vote
#3 - Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:10 PM EDT{"commentId":251454,"authorDomain":"junger"}
{"commentId":254807,"authorDomain":"cqtech"}
I disagree with your chain of events.
Leo Laporte has a much larger following, and was a brand name even before the breakup of TechTV, but his side efforts in creating podcast shows for twit.tv has not seen a similar explosion of interest. (It has seen an great deal of interest, but not to the level that would be expected if the Kevin Rose -> KR fans -> Digg progression is at the heart of the sites growth).
There were as many comments of "who is Kevin Rose" as there were of fan appreciation when it was first announced that he was part of the Digg creation team. There were also a few comments to the effect that this was another distraction from the work he claimed to be doing for his Revision3 shows, which even he admits it has been.
There is something to be said for brand recognition, but I think you apply more branding value to the name of "Kevin Rose" than to the word "Digg". On which, unlike Google, the sites creators have specifically targeted not just as a neat turn on an existing word, but as a net term that can be used multipurpose as noun, verb, adjective and adverb. It was made as a cool term to use on the web by people who wanted it used as such, and the act of promoting the site was initially taken up by other TechTV alumni whose names were equally as recognizable to those fans as that of Kevin Rose.
{"commentId":254807,"threadId":"36885","contentId":"324671","authorDomain":"cqtech"}
{"commentId":251437,"authorDomain":"KevinR"}
Uhm, if anyone migrates to a site because of Kevin Rose they should be shot. Kevin Rose is the biggest idiot I've ever seen on television. He was flaunted on the network and had the alias known as the 'underground' or 'dark' hacker. The kid used a brute force cracker on television and couldn't even work it. Ok, mr underground hacker.
I just can't believe how many idiots there are in the world who follow someone just for the heck of it.
{"commentId":251437,"threadId":"36885","contentId":"324671","authorDomain":"KevinR"}
- 1 vote
#4 - Tue Aug 15, 2006 11:25 AM EDT{"commentId":251447,"authorDomain":"junger"}
{"commentId":254553,"authorDomain":"ChrisRant"}
I too don't want to dis Kevin, as he does seem to be doing well for being so young, but I won't call him any kind of business genius until Digg makes some money and he can afford a couch. That being said, personality goes a long way; some of the wealthiest people in the world are entertainers. I love DiggNation and I'd furnish his whole apartment from the extra stuff in my basement I weren't on the other side of the country...
{"commentId":254553,"threadId":"36885","contentId":"324671","authorDomain":"ChrisRant"}
#5 - Thu Aug 17, 2006 10:06 AM EDT{"commentId":269901,"authorDomain":"nicmitham"}
Your story actually raises a secondary issue of brand awareness outside of its footprint. I'm from the UK and had never heard of Kevin Rose until I read your post. So, I have zero knowledge of him and his brand values.
Despite this, I have been a keen digg user for several months and I have an affection to the brand without really knowing anything else about it apart from the online service it provides me.
So, maybe a quesiton is: 'have I been indirectly afffected by the Kevin Rose brand without being directly exposed to it?" Perhaps his style, positioning and direction have combined to create a site that I like.
{"commentId":269901,"threadId":"36885","contentId":"324671","authorDomain":"nicmitham"}
- 1 vote
#6 - Tue Aug 29, 2006 5:15 PM EDT{"canLink":false,"threadId":"36885","isPrivate":false}
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