Technically Speaking

This was quite interesting seeing, the scramble to get the MySpace Music post up first.

But as we all know, MySpace Music launches tonight at 9pm pacific time!

If you are out of work and looking for a job, Digg apparently has them now with their new Series C round of funding that is close to $30 million.

That’s almost three times as much as Digg has raised so far, in two previous rounds of financing. Why so much?

My guess is to hire more people, pay for the new space in San Francisco, and other assorted things that Digg needs in order to be successful at what they do. What do they actually do or rather what is their product?

Technically Speaking, just felt like posting.

No surprises here today. Digg has been talked about in the past on a variety of sites out there as being a totally gamed system. Yet, with the foreknowledge of the gaming that goes on there, people still rely on it as the what is hot and what is not story of the minute.

The thing that disturbs me somewhat is the owners of Digg are more or less anti-establishment as they come, but still the same - they are turning into the man. Instead of, as a great sports entertainer of our time coined the phrase, “To be the man, you have to beat the man!”, they are just saying “Hell we may as well be the man.”

What say I? Well I have a rather good resource that tells me that the blog over on Lending Club has been permanently buried. Strange, for some reason because this post made page 1 of digg a few weeks back, our next post that went on digg was denied page 1 status, as well as an earlier attempt post page 1. The reasoning is laughable at best. Due to the blog being a financial blog, it’s buried. Plain and simple. Grant it these posts are all written with the intent of getting on Digg, but also with the intent of spreading good financial information in a light and humorous down to earth way.

Now I say that is one of the more stupid reasons to be buried on Digg. Why is it that a blog that is purely written as a resource on p2p lending and personal finance be buried? Is it perhaps that as we have mentioned many times on the LC blog, people are really that afraid of talking about personal finance?

Interesting still the same. There is really nothing new here, we all know that Digg is a game at best. Do the really best stories get to page one, or are they the ones that are granted that right? Now my good blogging friend over on CN, Allen has used Digg and played within the system set up. I for one am glad, as earlier this month I showed how his statistics have climbed in astronomical ways. I don’t begrudge him at all for using Digg.

Digg is there for the technology oriented blogs. The “man’s” stamp of approval and free pass is quite evident. Now CN deserves it. I have watched personally, as many of you have, watched CN climb in status as a blog to watch in his quest to take on the man. He is now becoming the powerhouse blog that he set out to be. Yes, he has used every trick of the trade, but he also has some of the most compelling and quality articles you won’t find elsewhere.

So on one hand, I can say “Digg is good for blogging”. On the other hand, the LC blog while still in it’s infancy as a blog, has done quite well. It’s solid and has many articles to read. Some more helpful than others, some with a bit of personal humor from our group of bloggers, and some are long reads like the last series that ran in the entire month of December. Our variety of all original material is pretty good if I say so myself.

Now I think that qualifies us to be on Digg page 1 every once in awhile. I guess the “man” who is trying to be so anti-establishment on the outside, but truly nothing more than the people we all despised in our cubicle dwelling days. “The Man“. If Digg truly wants to be the place where mainstream America will go after they sell for what I have read to be between $150-300 million, they need to correct this.

Technically Speaking, while maybe Digg really doesn’t care and I’m sure will gladly take that $150-300 million; don’t blame them at all, take the money dude, I still feel that if you are truly going to be a true resource of what is hot and what is not for the day - you really need to fix this. Maybe they will want to discuss this in person, or maybe they will want to talk about how Lookery can help them out. I seriously doubt it, but for those of you in the San Francisco area the first week of February, I will be in town. If you want to meet and chat about Lookery or anything, drop me a line.

To be quite honest, I have actually found Mahalo more user friendly these days.

Full Disclosure: Rex Dixon is the Director of Social Media Content for Lending Club and works as Publisher Relations for Lookery. nutritional supplements

I know that many of you have already seen this on TC. The one thing that TC forgot to promote was the fact that this girl is trying to make it to the Super Bowl. So take a listen, and log on to your MySpace account and vote for her. Kina does a fine job on this song as well as a few other ones she has.

Here are the lyrics to follow along:

When I’m feeling lazy, at school or when I work
I sneak to my computer, and then I like to shirk
I don’t go online shopping, I don’t email with my mom
I open up my browser, and go to digg-dot-com

Chorus: Gotta digg, gotta digg, gotta digg
Gotta make this story big!
Did you hear that awful sound?
Another server’s down!

I always dig up Apple, and I bury Microsoft
But when I said I was a girl, all the diggers scoffed
And when I see those stories about Senator Ron Paul
I don’t even RTFA; I just digg them all!

Chorus: Gotta digg, gotta digg, gotta digg
Gotta make this story big!
Did you hear that awful sound?
Another server’s down!

The fanboys can be tiresome, they always are outspoken
And if you’re listening Kevin Rose, the comment system’s broken!
I know digg isn’t perfect, but be thankful for what we’ve got
It’s just like daddy always says: “At least it’s not Slashdot!!!”

Chorus: Gotta digg, gotta digg, gotta digg
Gotta make this story big!
Did you hear that awful sound?
Another server’s down!

Technically Speaking, a good song is not rocket science, it’s a hook that stays with you. This one has for the past hour.

Well it is Thanksgiving weekend, so everyone is out shopping and burning up their credit card limits in order to indulge in their gluttonies of bestowing family members with gifts. Maybe not, but I am reading that quietly Digg is selling itself to News Corp (maybe = rumor), and quite possibly the whole kit and kaboodle meaning Rev 3 may be part of the deal.

Now I wouldn’t exactly call it Digg refugees, as refugee is term more associated with an ever more important catastrophic event. Such as refugees from a typhoon or earthquake. I think that if the people flock from Digg to Mixx, it will be the in crowd that goes there. If the WSJ and News Corp buy Digg and Rev 3 or the whole package, more of the mainstream will come to know Digg.

Mixx could gain underground leverage due to the fact of the swarm of dissatisfied Digg users who will perceive this sale as selling out to the man. I see it as the maturing of the company and Kevin Rose. I don’t begrudge him for selling it off (if in fact he does), as it’s time to move on and do something new.

Technically Speaking, there are a few other interesting things going on out there. None which I wanted to spend any great deal of time on.

Such as Facebook and the Beacon, Yahoo’s MyM, Zune still failing, and the EU clamping down on targeted advertising. Do give thanks this weekend, and don’t max out your credit cards too badly! migraine

$300 million is what the rumors are that Digg will be sold for soon. As I read through many of the posts on this today, the one that made the most sense came from CN. Digg does need to sell, unload, and move on. The facts that he brought up were the only ones that made sense to me at least.

While $300 million is quite a big price, the real question is who has that kind of money to pony up for a site that really doesn’t do much more than aggregate popular stories of the day? Now to get that kind of money, I hope that Jay and Kevin take some advice from what Mike was saying. I agree, if you never have been offered more than $150 million, what makes you think you can actually get the $300 million rumored price?

Does Digg need to sell before the new year? I would say that if the plan is as Allen outlined, Revision 3 has a better chance of being something worthwhile. With the writers strike in full swing, now would be the time to market Revision 3 as the top dog of online video production. The Rev3 production team does seem to have the schtick down pat.

Technically Speaking, here is another great post on why you should throw caution to the wind during this holiday season if you want to earn money as a mystery shopper.