Digg

The guys at Diggnation (Digg founder Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht) are in New York today, and instead of their usual beer, they're quaffing drinks mixed by guest celebrity bartender Rachel Maddow.

The show posted today on San Francisco's Revision3, and MSNBC's political talker looks perfectly at home in jeans and a hoodie, as she happily slices fruit in preparation for the concoction of breakfast cocktails.

But don't take our word for it -- watch for yourself.

The Internet is all about innovation, but San Francisco-based Digg seems to have taken it to a new level. As reported in yesterday's New York Times, Digg -- the San Francisco company that surfaces content based on user approval -- will soon take a similar approach for ads.

To wit: Popular ads receive a lower cost-per-click rate, which will ostensibly lead the companies placing them to leave them on the site longer. Ads that get low marks end up costing more, increasing the likelihood that they'll be pulled.

The ads will be positioned similar to standard Digg content, but will be clearly marked as advertisements. Digg offered a visual example on its company blog.

"The premise behind this platform is that we are going to do for ads what we did for news," said Jay Adelson, Digg's chief executive, in the Times. "Like everything else about Digg, we want to bring users into the conversation and let the advertising be content in ways that will allow for a much richer experience and will really amplify the effectiveness of ads for media buyers."

The company will start with baby steps, especially owing to the possibility that if users vote down every ad -- or even a solid majority of them -- it could send the financial model into a tizzy.

Once, press conferences with the governor of the nation's most populous state were reserved for well-credentialed beat reporters. These days, the job's been handed down to . . . well, pretty much anybody.

San Francisco-based Digg is offering up Arnold Schwarzenegger as part of its Digg Dialog, and inviting users to submit questions for the governor. The Digg community votes on questions, and the most popular will be presented.

Currently that means queries about marijuana, gay marriage and budget imbalance. Also, of course, movie roles he regrets, Japanese TV commercials and how much he can currently bench press.

If newspapers are indeed dying, at least Digg promises to help keep things interesting. Users have until Tuesday, May 26 at noon to submit and "Digg up" questions to be asked.

TechCrunch posted an interview with Digg founder Kevin Rose, in which he said his San Francisco-based company was headed in a "completely new direction," with the "biggest overhaul to how everything works behind the scenes" upcoming. As an example, he cited Digg's new search functionality, which keeps stories from simply disappearing into the ether.

One clue: Rose dropped the phrase "more real-time" in an otherwise vague description of that direction. ("Real-time" says TechCrunch, "is secret code for Twitter.")

The entire 30-minute interview can be found here.

Edited highlights below.