Social bookmarking website Digg launched the first version of its new site on Tuesday after going back into startup mode to rebuild the site from the bottom up. V1, for version 1, was built on “fresh code” and the team says they plan to build it out quickly.
The new site features more images and stories selected by editors. It is free from ads and appears to have space for bigger stories.
On July 20, Digg reverted into a startup again and began building the code with plans to officially launch a new site in six weeks. The revamp of the site will include new personalized recommendation features to make the site more relevant and social for users. Plus, new commenting features, continually enhanced mobile web capabilities and new data for users.
Digg is also launching an API “so that members of the development community can build all the products that we haven’t even thought of yet.”
“We’re proud of what we’ve built over the last month and a half, but today is just the beginning. Hello world, welcome to v1,” the blog post states.
Digg’s iPhone app [iTunes link] was also updated on Tuesday. The description on iTunes highlight’s the new Digg and features within the app, including the ability to save stories to read later, which sounds very similar to Instapaper. The look and feel of the iPhone app also shares strong similarities with News.me for iPhone. That makes sense, as the News.me team is the new Digg team.
Founded by Kevin Rose in December 2004, Digg has experienced major ups-and-downs, both as a site and with its valuation, over the years. Rose resigned in March 2011. Earlier this month, Digg was sold to New York startup incubator Betaworks.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the company’s “core assets” were sold for at least $500,000.
According to the Journal, investors gave more than $45 million since Digg launched in 2004. Google came close to buying Digg in 2008 for $200 million but decided against purchasing the site, deciding Digg wasn’t worth the large sum.
