Times of India, one of the most popular newspaper in India carries an article on “Digg (Digg)”:http://digg.com/. So, beware, there might an Indian troll on Digg looming around the corner ready to pounce anytime.

The Indians are very patient, they can do repetitive and mundane task very effectively, they are quick to catch up with simple, quick to finish jobs. Seeing the growth of *PO (read, KPO, ITO, BPO and all the other POs) in India, the above statement is evident that the majority of the Indian Technical Swarm is good with such works including the new growth of self proclaimed SEO experts, Web Masters and of course the much praised Technical Engineer Workforce working in “Call Centers and BPOs (Call Centers and BPOs)”:http://ojustme.com/2006/11/a-deafening-time-bomb-waiting-at-indian-call-centers/.

“Times of India (Times of India)”:http://www.timesofindia.com/ is perhaps one of the most popular Daily Newspaper in India. It carries a page on technology related article everyday just before the sports section. This section is where I don’t miss and I shirk everyday with the feeling “can’t they be a bit advanced than this”. All the news, technical articles are about 3 to 4 days old at most and sometimes a week or a month old. Let me take that with a pinch of salt assuming that it is well suited for the other regular people who don’t need to and want to live on the bleeding edge of technical happenings. So, it is OK.

Now, let’s get to the topic – “Digg (Digg)”:http://digg.com/ and Indians. Today, Times of India did a Digg introductory article – *Get Digg-y with the news*. Now, that the Indians have read and knows about Digg, they’re going to take a gradual browse, then digg, then submit. All that will be in huge quantity, in chunks and in loads lot. I’m not that good with prediction but let me tell you a similar story and how it might affect Digg by the Indian troll.

Sometime ago, well years ago, I started using “Orkut (Orkut)”:http://www.orkut.com/ (I think just before it was taken over by Google) when I was invited by a Brazilian Flash Coder Friend. I even formed a Community somewhere in April, 2004 which eventually become famous even though it was a niche group targeted to a small community of users. While inviting few friends, some replied, “Another Social Networking Site? Spare me.” However, those same friends are now overly active on Orkut of which I proclaimed at that time that it might just be of of the most used site as Google is taking over it and Google might just take care of it. Now, In India, it won’t be surprising all internet surfers, Instant Messaging chatters have an Orkut account and they use if as frequently as emails and chats.

This Orkut like usage might not really be replicated on Digg. Nonetheless, I don’t want to rule out the fact that it might be swamped by the huge population of Indian users digging stories like crazy. I respect and adhere to the usage ethics of Digg but you can’t expect everybody else to do the same. So, beware.

Currently at the time of writing this article, Indians on Digg was countable numbers on one’s fingers but now, many are going to jump in and hit it, and hit it real hard. Top Indian Diggers are even fewer. Let’s hope the new entrants don’t tarnish the name of the other good, ethical Indian Diggers.

_Here are some excerpts from the Newspaper article_

The video of “Saddam Hussein (Saddam Hussein)”:http://digg.com/search?s=saddam+hussein&submit=Search&section=news&type=title&area=promoted&age=30&sort=new execution surfaced on the internet minutes after the incident. News about Apple’s “iPhone (iPhone)”:http://digg.com/search?s=iPhone&submit=Search&section=news&type=title&area=promoted&age=30&sort=new was up online much before it was officially announced by the company. And even before the product’s launch was fixed, it was commented upon by users on a site, Digg.com, where activity is continuous. Here you can post videos, stories and news in various categories like sports, entertainment or technology. You can even comment on posts already on the site.

*Tracking Popularity* : Digg.com is a user-ranked news site. Once you register, you can submit your own stories or post a link to a story — it will appear in the “Upcoming Stories” section, where other users can give it a thumbs up and “digg” it or “bury” it if they do not find it interesting. Depending on the diggs a story received, its rating increases or decreases.

If your story receives a large number of diggs, it automatically qualifies for the “popular stories” section and is promoted to the home page in its category. But if your story fails to receive enough diggs within a stipulated time frame (12 – 24 hours), it will be removed. You can keep track of your stories via your profile. (_I think that time frame thingy is a bit wrong, sometimes a story might hit the front page even after 24 hours of submission. And stories are not removed, they stay there and still get diggs by people who like the story. However, they may never see the light of the front page._)

*An eye on reliability* : The site’s simple yet intuitive interface makes posting and navigation very easy. Another nifty feature is “Digg Spy (Digg Spy)”:http://digg.com/spy which stacks up posts in real-time. So, if you find a story interesting you can click on it and it will open in a new tab (Firefox) or a new window (Internet Explorer). “Digg tools (Digg tools)”:http://digg.com/tools offer features that allows you to add Digg to your website or blog page. So if a visitor to your blog likes your story, she can directly click on the “Digg button (Digg button)”:http://digg.com/tools/buttons on your blog page.

But there is a caveat too. Some users try to cheat to increase their ranking. For example, by getting a group of friends vote for each other. Some websites even use digg to promoted stories of their own site. Digg.com however, offers ways to curb inaccurate or spam posts. If you find a post irrelevant, you can make it as “inaccurate”. Similarly, if you find a website spamming on Digg, you can mark the post as spam and it will be taken off the site.

_Note_ – I’ve added hyperlinks to the article excerpts.