Digg.com Leaps Into Non-Virtual Worlds With Stickable Digg-its

Spokane, June 9, 2007 -- Digg.com, the popular internet-based social bookmarking and news community, has taken a giant leap forward into "non-virtual spaces" with its launch of Stickable Digg-its™. A joint venture with 3M, manufacturer of Post-it Notes™, Stickable Digg-its aim to move Digg.com bookmarking tools, already ubiquitous on the internet, into the mainstream of the physical world.

Stickable Digg-it™ in action

"Everyone who's ever read a newspaper or blog article on the web has seen those little 'Digg this' icons," Jay Adelson, chief executive officer of Digg, said. "Sometimes, there isn't even any content in the article – just a bunch of social bookmarking icons. So we thought, why restrict that kind of functionality to the internet when there's a whole world of people and products you might also want to Digg. Stickable Digg-its will help us capitalize on that huge, untapped market of Diggable stuff."

Digg.com's democratic social bookmarking system currently allows users to share links to articles of interest they have discovered on the web with other Digg users and visitors. Users vote on articles they consider exceptional. When an article has received enough votes, it is promoted to Digg.com's highly-trafficked front page.

Digg.com's success has spawned a large coterie of imitators and competitors, including Reddit.com, del.icio.us, a retooled Netscape.com, and others, all of which function in more or less similar ways.

"It's a terrific system that we're continually tweaking and improving to stay one step ahead of the competition," Mr. Adelson said. "The addition of Stickable Digg-its is, however, more of a sea change, a paradigm shift, if you will. With Stickable Digg-its, we'll be the first social bookmarking site to step out of the virtual world into the world of physical objects."

According to Walton Poole, vice president for product development at 3M, Stickable Digg-its represent a striking new application of nano-computing and Wi-Fi technologies.

"Each Digg-it resembles a very small Post-it note but is actually a Wi-Fi compatible, flexible active matrix display programmed to interact directly with Digg.com's databases," Mr. Poole said.

"The Digg-it, which can be readily affixed to virtually any person or product, displays a small 'Digg this' icon that is pressed to 'Digg' the item or person. A tiny microphone and voice-to-text processor allow a user to speak a description which is then auto-transcribed for display on the Digg.com website. The whole process is seamless and virtually instantaneous."

"When a person or item has been 'Dugg'," Mr. Poole said, "the Stickable Digg-it displays a continually updated readout of how many 'Diggs' have been accumulated. If the person or product makes it to Digg's front page, the Digg-it turns red, glows, and beeps, thus demonstrating the broad popularity of that person or object."

"We see Stickable Digg-its being used in a huge variety of applications," Mr. Adelson said. "For instance, suppose you're at the grocery store, shopping, and you don't know what kind of cheese to buy. If every lump of cheese in there had a Stickable Digg-it on it, you'd instantly be able to see which cheeses were the most popular ones."

"Same goes for people," Mr. Adelson continued. "Let's say you're out at a bar and can't decide which hot chick to buy a drink. If they're all wearing Stickable Digg-its, which by the way make a really neat fashion accessory, you'd be able to zone in on the most dugg one and not waste time on the dogs."

Mr. Adelson explained that the potential applications of Stickable Digg-its are virtually limitless: Digg-its could be used for dog and baby shows, used car purchases, DVD rentals, electronics stores – in any situation where a democratic assessment of a person or product's qualities could come in handy.

"I see Digg-its adding a neat, high-tech twist to wedding ceremonies," Mr. Adelson said. "Instead of saying 'I do', just press the Stickable Digg-it."

By Ion Zwitter, Avant News Editor