Google Gears Plug-in Required!

To use this tool, you will need to download and install Google Gears, then return to this page. This will allow the tool to store your Digg history in a local SQLite database. Once you finish downloading a copy of each story you have 'Dugg', you will be able to use Google search syntax (phrases, omissions, and field-specific).

Why not just go to Digg.com and search?

Digg no longer allows you to perform searches on your voting history. Many people use Digg as a bookmarking tool, and thus intend to reference back to specific articles. There may be thousands of stories on the same topic, not all will contain the same content as the story you are looking for.

About the tool

This is a proof of concept for a web application philosophy Brian Shaler has proposed to present at SXSW 2008 (link). Leveraging client-side services (such as Google Gears or Adobe AIR), web application developers will be able to push some functionality, especially repetitive tasks on small, rarely-changing datasets, onto the client. When functionality is pushed to the client, the client will generally see a substantial performance increase and unbeatable application responsiveness. This is because there will be a 1 server to 1 client ratio, as the client would be running its own server. Meanwhile, the usage of server resources for these repetitive tasks is reduced, potentially saving companies money on hardware or minimizing the effects of rapid success, known as "Growing Pains".

Check out the rest of Brian Shaler's 3rd party Digg tools.

Note:

This tool currently routes all Digg API requests through my personal web server. Due to the 'Digg Effect', the server may experience outages. If you have any issues, try back in a day or two.

What is it?

This tool will search Digg.com for your entire voting history, then download the details for each story. Once downloaded, stories are indexed in a local SQLite database via Google Gears. This allows you to perform search queries on your Digg history without having to connect to Digg's servers.

First Time

The first time you use it, you will need to do a one-time full sync. This may take some time, so please be patient. Modern computers can index 1,000 stories in about 15 minutes. Obviously, the time it takes to sync depends on how many stories you have Dugg.

Please type in your Digg user name:

Important Note for Mac/FF Users!

Google Gears is still under development. When this tool invokes Gears' full-text search functionality, it often causes Firefox on Mac to close/crash. I have seen it happen on 3 different Macs, and have not yet been able to troubleshoot this issue. Just a warning so you don't lose your place if you have other tabs open.

PC/IE & PC/FF users are NOT affected by this issue. But should still take caution while using this tool. The Google Gears plug-in is still in development.

About the tool

This is a proof of concept for a web application philosophy Brian Shaler has proposed to present at SXSW 2008 (link). Leveraging client-side services (such as Google Gears or Adobe AIR), web application developers will be able to push some functionality, especially repetitive tasks on small, rarely-changing datasets, onto the client. When functionality is pushed to the client, the client will generally see a substantial performance increase and unbeatable application responsiveness. This is because there will be a 1 server to 1 client ratio, as the client would be running its own server. Meanwhile, the usage of server resources for these repetitive tasks is reduced, potentially saving companies money on hardware or minimizing the effects of rapid success, known as "Growing Pains".

Check out the rest of Brian Shaler's 3rd party Digg tools. Feedback is always welcome: brian@shaler.name