Digg in the beginning : The first 10 stories

by Patrick Altoft on August 14, 2007

In the early days Digg wasn’t quite the site it is today. Just like any new site there were very few users and the stories were selected by the developers rather than the community. In this post I looked back in the Digg archives using the Digg API and the story id parameter to find the first 10 stories ever to be submitted to Digg, the results may suprise you.

“We started working on developing the site back in October 2004,” Kevin Rose told ZDNet “We started toying around with the idea a couple of months prior to that, but it was early October when we actually started creating what would become the beta version of digg.”

The first 10 stories

1. CherryOS delayed till Q1 of 2005

The first ever Digg story was CherryOS delayed till Q1 of 2005, it hit the homepage (obviously) and only ever received 35 Diggs and one comment. This was an anonymous submission, just like the second story.

Digg, ever mindful of history, have deleted this story from the site but Archive.org caught it.

2. Creative delares ‘war’ against the iPod

Again Digg deleted the second story about Creative delares ‘war’ against the iPod but Google has a copy (sort of) showing 18 Diggs. Note the spelling mistake in the title!

3. Rumors: Next iPod to have downloadable games

The third story to be submitted and the first that Digg kept is from kevinrose and was apparently made popular 73 days before it was submitted. The story was titled Rumors: Next iPod to have downloadable games and currently has over 1200 Diggs.

Digg 3rd story

4. Torrent search engine

Next up was a blatant attempt by Kevin Rose to rank on Google for the term Torrent search engine which currently stands at over 330 Diggs.

5. Logitech Z-5300 5.1 Surround Speaker System

The fifth story was an interesting one. Kevin Rose was clearly short of cash and posted an affiliate link to Amazon for a Logitech Z-5300 5.1 Surround Speaker System. I bet even Kevin couldn’t get an affiliate link on the front page today.

6. Buy one get one free Jamba juice

Next up is another deleted story about how to Buy one get one free Jamba juice with 169 Diggs, luckily for Jamba Juice fans archive.org caught it and Google has data too.

7. Bens Bargains

Story number 7 was entitled Ben’s Bargains but it’s been deleted. You can see the problem here - it’s been merged into 2 other stories. Once again, archive.org has a copy showing 196 Diggs.

8. Cascading Style Cheatsheet

Showing the tech nature of Diggers the 8th story was a Cascading Style Cheatsheet which died at just 23 Diggs. Google has a cached link.

9. Blog Box Applications

Number nine is a story linking to Blog Box called Blog Box Applications which stuck at 24 Diggs and has been deleted from the site.

10. Missing tenth story

This is a bit of a mystery, story id 10 doesn’t seem to exist. Maybe it was spam?

Engadgets first Digg

Since I can’t find story ten here is a bonus, Engadgets first Digg homepage with Tomato Picking Robots in Space.

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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Carl Coddington 14/08/2007 at 8:24 pm: I remember Digg in the beginning. Thanks for the nostalgia.
2 Paquito 14/08/2007 at 8:56 pm: Interesting…

We should digg it! )))))))))))

Regards from Spain,

Paquito.
http://paquito4ever.blogspot.com
3 HaHaUK 14/08/2007 at 9:46 pm: You have #6 and #7 messed up! Otherwise, an interesting read.
–
HaHaUK.com
4 Adam 14/08/2007 at 9:49 pm: Wow, brings back memories thats for sure haha…Tomato Picking Robots in Space.
5 Patrick Altoft 14/08/2007 at 9:52 pm: HaHaUK, I didn’t mess it up - Digg deleted the stories.
6 Detonation 14/08/2007 at 9:59 pm: “HaHaUK, I didn’t mess it up - Digg deleted the stories. “

No, look at the headings for the listings. 5 and 6 are the same and 7 is wrong.
7 BigDick McGee 14/08/2007 at 10:06 pm: #10 had to be a story about how evil Bush is and how the whole world was at peace and everyone was hugging and singing when Clinton was in office.
8 Sean 14/08/2007 at 10:08 pm: What he means is the headings for #6 and #7 are messed up. The post about Jamba Juice has a Logitech heading, and the Ben’s Bargain post has a Jamba Juice heading.
9 Joop 14/08/2007 at 10:13 pm: The Digg API has so much more potential than this. Although interestingly Digg did not start with pics, lolcats and wierd news.
10 dep 14/08/2007 at 10:16 pm: WHOA! Digg used to have useful stories! This is PROOF!
11 Patrick Altoft 14/08/2007 at 10:37 pm: Sorry HaHaUK, my bad. I mixed up the titles.
12 JC 15/08/2007 at 12:44 am: Digg in the beginning was a beautiful thing. I remember I would check it about 10 times a day or more. Now, not so much anymore.
13 peppe 15/08/2007 at 1:13 am: Wow, thats pretty cool to see… Oh and I got 10$ says Kevin can most certianly get something on the front page, Even if its just to prove a point.
14 Robodoon 15/08/2007 at 2:17 am: Well then, there is hope for all of us…LOL
15 Brant Tedeschi 15/08/2007 at 6:18 am: I actually enjoyed this post about digg. Most stories that are about digg that make the front page arent even worth the read. nice work
16 Dez Blanchfield 15/08/2007 at 7:15 am: Love the clock, but the rest are a bit “ordinary”..

Cheers,

Dez

—
http://www.blanchfield.com.au/
http://www.websearch.com.au/
http://www.thestorageforum.com/
http://www.cradletechnologies.com/
17 Troy 15/08/2007 at 3:46 pm: Interesting… It’s always good to look back and see how these things started.
18 Joe 15/08/2007 at 5:13 pm: Wow, Digg was lame before it got cool…before it got lame again.
19 trikepilot 20/08/2007 at 5:28 am: Loved the affiliate link attempt by Kevin

“The most fun you can have with your clothes on!” http://www.trikepilot.com
20 Planet Apex 28/01/2008 at 6:49 pm: This is very interesting. Wow, how soon time goes in the net. a year or 2 is like 10-20 years in offline…