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February 10, 2007
Wordpress Passes Digg
An apples and oranges comparison, some might think, but less so than you might imagine: I see that in the last few weeks Wordpress's reach (ed., all the usual Alexaholic disclaimers apply) has caught Digg's, passed it, and and stayed ahead.Huge congrats to Matt, Toni, and everyone at Wordpress/Automattic.
Sphere It
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Digg it
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Bookmark it
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Stumble it
I must admit, Paul, I'm kind of stuck on the apples vs. oranges aspect. Can Wordpress.com, a site that hosts blogs, really be said to compete with a social bookmarking site like Digg.com in any meaningful way?
@Matthew Ingram, in what dialect does "reach" translate into "compete"? I don't think anyone disagrees about it being apples and oranges.
Well, @Lloyydd Bbudd -- if they don't compete, then what is the point of comparing their reach?
They are apples and oranges, but that's a comparison, and a choice, that's often made. It's not like comparing, say ipods and kiwi fruit. I add my congrats to the WordPress crew.
@Matthew Ingram, as Andrew suggests, there is any number of reasons why the compassion might be interesting, some that come to me are:
* Alexaholicism
* Business characteristics: Age of the services, # of employees, funding characteristics, technology used
* Customer characteristics
* Business opportunities
Aside, the humor of what appears to be a joke about the spelling of my Welsh first name and my English sir name is lost on me.
Matthew is always the troublemaker :)
Agreed Howard. 'Cause Mathew, I'm not sure what you don't really get.
At a low level, these are both big social media sites, one that acts as a hub, one that could be a hub, but hasn't gone far down that path -- and clearly could be a contender, at least if reach is any measure.
At a higher level, I think many people would be surprised at the rapid rise of Wordpress's reach. Maybe I live in a cloistered world, but for it to have tied a go-go-site-du-jour, like Digg, is intriguing news.
Don't forget Google Trends and how they weigh in on the topic:
Digg hit the radar just after the midpoint of 2005, and Wordpress just after mid-2006. Looking at where they each ended their 1st 6 months on a Google Trend graph (this shows popularity of user-specified searches and should be more inclusive than Alexa), Digg had a good lead. But it was EVERYWHERE in the print and online press, whereas I haven't seen much print press given to Wordpress.
I'm not totally against the comparison, Paul -- I just thought it was a little odd because Wordpress is just a host for blogs about all kinds of things, in all kinds of places, by all kinds of people.
In other words, it is a distributed service in a way that Digg is not -- Digg is a place where people go to post things. Completely different animals, although obviously both big social media sites in a way.
Anyway, no big deal really. I'm not trying to pick a fight or anything. And Lloyd, the only reason I added so many double letters to your name was because you added too many "t"s to mine. Childish, I know :-)
I am a digg sceptic. if they were really shopping it at over $100m I would be shocked and if it turns out that this price was turned down, then that could be a story for the ages. I don't see it as anything more than a niche site that could easily flame out when the users get bored and find something else to entertain themselves with.