Digg: The Digg iFrame Toolbar is Dead / Unbanning Domains
Here are a couple updates regarding the DiggBar (iFrame toolbar) and banned sites. Note: These changes will not take place until the launch of Digg v4, sign up for the beta here. — DiggBar: — Framing content with an iFrame is bad for the Internet.
Context & Ripple Effects
The DiggBar launched in April 2009 as a way to keep users inside Digg while they viewed submitted content, but within a month it drew fire for wrapping other sites' pages in an iFrame 'framing' scheme — stripping publishers of direct URLs and search-engine credit. This post is Kevin Rose's answer: an acknowledgment that 'framing content with an iFrame is bad for the Internet,' with both the toolbar's death and a mass domain-unbanning scheduled to take effect at the Digg v4 launch.
The timing matters because Digg is already under scrutiny from publishers: a March 2010 report on the v4 overhaul noted it was expected to lessen the coveted traffic spikes that made Digg a referral powerhouse back when it broadened beyond its early geek base. Killing the DiggBar reads as a concession aimed at keeping those same publishers willing to play along through the transition.
First-order effects
- Publishers whose pages were previously served inside the DiggBar will get direct inbound links again once v4 ships, restoring clean URLs for analytics and search indexing.
- Operators of previously banned domains get reinstated access to Digg's submission and voting system, reopening a referral channel that had been closed off.
Second-order effects
- With the March 2010 reporting already flagging smaller traffic spikes under v4, publishers who forgave Digg for the toolbar because of the volume it sent will weigh whether the trade still favors participation.
- Other aggregator-style services that frame third-party content face a legitimacy problem: one of the category's biggest players has publicly declared the practice bad for the web, giving critics of framing a named precedent to cite.
Third-order effects
- If Digg's retreat holds, the pattern points toward social news platforms competing on publisher-friendliness — clean links, unbanned domains — rather than on-destination retention tricks like iFrames, as their value shifts from capturing clicks to certifying them.
- The episode also marks a governance shift: platform-level decisions about how outbound traffic is presented (toolbar, ban lists) become public-relations liabilities that get reversed at major version launches rather than argued away.
The trend: Social aggregation platforms are trading traffic-interception mechanics like framed toolbars for publisher-friendly linking as their leverage over media sites erodes.