Brian Clark has published in the performancing blog three reasons why Delicious is better than Digg and this in order to a recent publication of him that was promoted both in Digg’s front page and in Delicious’s popular top.

Let’s see the three reasons for which he thinks Delicious is better and also a few own opinions that show the opposite:

3 reasons why Delicious is better than Digg

 

Reason #1: Bookmarks are enduring

Though it is true that we keep a web site to return when we have more time; mostly, the users of Delicious view the page as a resource to which they will be able to return again and again. With Digg, the user simply votes, being able to provide, or not, traffic. Digg has a short term effect.

Reason #2: Bookmarks show commitment

Narrowly tied to the previous idea, the Delicious user compromises himself with the web site, adding it to his collection of favorite links; and this, probably, because the resource provides a benefit to him. Then, other Delicious users notice this commitment, giving major credibility to the resource, which turn to more bookmarks.

I believe that this one is one of the main reasons why in a day Delicious turns into many subscribers and readers who return; while often the same exhibition in Digg is not like that.

Reason #3: Each bookmark is a targeted link

This is the real power of the social bookmarks. Each bookmark that your web receives in Delicious is an independent link, which is segmented by tags that define their relevancy for a subject matter; and besides, it is necessary to bear in mind the anchor text (text of the link) that is received, which is very useful for the search engines. Social marked, plays an important role in the evolution of web search, and the Digg model omits this aspect.

Not notice Digg?

In general, it is necessary to continue struggling to obtain bookmarks and diggs, since both have a bit of synergy between them.

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Objections to the reasons

Even when the general ideas seem right to me, there are details that the author has not born in mind. So, as he mentioned three ideas, I am going to mention three examples that can object these reasons; but don’t think I am in favor of one or another system.

Objection #1: Seekers don’t follow the links stored in Delicious.

For a time behind Delicious has implemented the nofollow tag to all the external links to their web, with the purpose of fighting and / or avoiding spam.

Objection #2: First, front page in Digg; then, popular in Delicious.

A detail that the author doesn’t mention is that a page that manages to be front page in Digg has a lot of probabilities of being between the Delicious’s popular top. This one is a very important detail, which we can verify easily and the author has not mentioned.

Where was his article promoted first? In Digg or in Delicious?

Objection #3: Digg favors the positioning in seekers

When a Digg user votes for a new, he is storing a link in his personal account. That is to say, that the web site is linked (independently) from the front page and categories, but also, from the users’ webs, as it is in Delicious. Nevertheless, something that make them different: Digg does not use rel = “nofollow”, so their links are valuable for the positioning in seekers.

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Finally to say that as Brian Clark, I think both tools Delicious and Digg, are very useful to promote a web. And they form part of a new term that I am sure will start taking force in a close future: SMO.