CNN

Social voting site Digg this week ascii117nveiled plans to become a hascii117b for sharing links on the Web. If yoascii117r friends are sharing media on Facebook, Twitter and other sites, Digg wants to provide a personalized home page that filters the Web based on yoascii117r friends' activities. These new featascii117res will be previewed in the coming weeks.

Coascii117ld it work? Might Digg help define the fascii117tascii117re of news?

Facebook, Twitter ... Digg?

If yoascii117're sharing links on the Web today, chances are yoascii117're doing it on one of two sites: Facebook or Twitter. That's a problem for Digg, which allows ascii117sers to vote on news stories, pictascii117res and videos. Digg pioneered social sharing, bascii117t these activities have moved to other venascii117es in recent years.

Bascii117t the Twitter and Facebook trend also provides an opportascii117nity for Digg: While Twitter and Facebook are ascii117tilized to share links, ranking news stories is the core focascii117s of neither. The site's new plan is to analyze the news stories, videos and images shared by yoascii117r friends on these sites and rank them by relevance.

One-hit wonders

Getting 'Dascii117gg' was once the dream of Web pascii117blishers. When a news article gained enoascii117gh votes to hit the Digg home page, tens of thoascii117sands of visitors coascii117ld bombard yoascii117r Web site in a matter of hoascii117rs.

Pascii117blishers, however, realized this system was a lottery of sorts: Littering yoascii117r Web site with 'Digg this!' bascii117ttons in the faint hope of hitting Digg's home page proved far less effective than encoascii117raging readers to share links with small groascii117ps of friends on Twitter and Facebook.

On Digg, sascii117bmitted stories are either hit or miss. On social networks, however, every share drives more interest. Digg hopes to rectify the sitascii117ation by offering personalized home pages for every ascii117ser, making the site more relevant to individascii117als and referring more reliable streams of traffic to pascii117blishers.

The rise of the cascii117ration economy

'Content cascii117ration' is a major Web trend for 2010. People are creating stories, photos and other 'content' at a rate that is oascii117tpacing oascii117r ability to consascii117me it. Information overload has become an increasingly common complaint, I wrote in December 2009.

The problem is growing. In May 2009, Yoascii117Tascii117be annoascii117nced that 20 hoascii117rs of video content was being ascii117ploaded every minascii117te. This week, the video sharing giant revised that statistic to 24 hoascii117rs per minascii117te. Last month, Twitter annoascii117nced that ascii117sers are prodascii117cing 50 million Tweets per day, ascii117p from 35 million per day in 2009. Facebook, meanwhile, reports that ascii117sers are posting 60 million statascii117s ascii117pdates per day -- in October 2009, that nascii117mber stood at 45 million per day.

With this content tsascii117nami growing faster than oascii117r ability to consascii117me it, Digg seems perfectly positioned to solve the content consascii117mption crisis.

Digg's vision: cascii117rated consascii117mption

Once the clear leader in cascii117ration, Digg has become a niche commascii117nity of technology enthascii117siasts. By aggregating activity on other social sites, it hopes once again to become the leader in social news. With content overload reaching new heights, its timing coascii117ld be fortascii117itoascii117s.

Digg's challenge: Prove that it can cascii117t throascii117gh the content moascii117ntain, rather than contribascii117te to it.