I also don’t necessarily agree with the fact most consumers only want to consume and not contribute when it comes to their consumer experiences. Data shows that over two thirds of all economic activity in North America is influenced by peer opinions and although the majority of this takes place offline today, why would it not be applicable online?

Even though Digg is entering a market that competes with us directly, I applaud the move. I think peer experiences have an intrinsic monetary value that should be factored into every purchase. This means that I can see the day when every purchase will have an opportunity for the consumer to recoup some of their cost by sharing their experiences with peers, and the more players that jump on this bandwagon and provide vehicles to voice those opinions, the more legitimacy and growth will happen within the entire consumer experience market.

If you look at Digg now, you can see that the traffic sent by the site to homepage stories is already dropping off. Alexa data (I know, not a true reflection) also suggests stagnation, with a trend downwards.

The last thing on their mind show be expansion away from their core competency, ie. tech.

btw, on that graph, I would say that they go from about ~2.5 to about ~1.7 (eye-balling an average for peaks) – so not exactly a half of page views.. but still a significant chunk.