Results: Is activity on Digg increasing or decreasing?

Among the information recorded for the database was the number of diggs a story received. Along with showing which stories for the month were the most popular, the number of diggs a story received served the additional purpose of providing a look at user activity on Digg.

As with most sites, the goal of rebranding is to offer additional functionality, and more importantly, to grow. To many, Digg’s rebranding was an utter failure. By tallying the total number of votes given to stories for each month, Digg’s 12-month traffic levels were charted.

At the beginning of the study, Digg was experiencing a growth in user activity, more than likely due to the hype around its upcoming rebranding, and the continued entry of Digg into the mainstream. Following the site’s update, traffic plummeted to a new low, and remained that way in the months following. One year after the study began, Digg’s activity was roughly 1/3rd of what it was originally. Looking at this change in numbers, it is easy to see that Digg’s site update was a terrible failure.