Digg 3.0 was released Monday last week. The new version offers a variety of new features and a little shine to the design. My first impression of the new Digg was positive. It’s about time they expanded the categories.

After playing with things for several days, I have mixed feelings about it. 3.0 definetly improved things, but most of it was unneccessary. The new Digg is slower and seems gimmiky in areas. The expanded categories are essential, but they aren’t integrated well. The new design pushes the site even further from its roots. It feels more like a web app now than a news source. Perhaps that’s the direction they want to go with it - “web 2.0.” I suppose it’s the way to go, but complexity isn’t. It feels more like a Yahoo! product than something Google would deliver. It’s complicated, packed with features, and each page is filled to the brim with widgets.

Web app or not, the layout is dissapointing. It improves user-interface in some situations, but complicates things in the process. The actual headlines have been pushed down and to the right. It’s not as easy to navigate. I was also dissapointed that there were no improvements made to the comment system.

Either way, Digg is a still the revolutionary tool for spreading online content. With their amazing development team, there is no doubt they will continue to grow and improve Digg. I look forward to seeing what they have in store for in the weeks to come (Digg Spy on crack ne1?).