As a young journalist, I begin my day by perusing stories written by top reporters at the major newspapers, as well as the offerings of some trusted blogs. At the end of my morning reading, I take about twenty minutes to zero in on three or four pieces that are particularly engaging, and then I submit them to Digg.com, a two-year-old social bookmarking site that lets users vote to determine the best articles of the day. Pulling stories from all over the Web, from popular blogs like BoingBoing to front-page features from The New York Times, Digg is a democratic filter where the readers are the gatekeepers—and some one million visitors come each day to see what the “Digg army” has dug up.

To this community I am known as Digidave. Every time one of my submissions is voted onto the front page, my rank among Digg’s 600,000 contributors is enhanced. As of this writing I am ranked forty-third and have become a trusted contributor, watched by more than two hundred people who are notified whenever I submit a new story, which, in turn, gives my submissions a better chance at reaching Digg’s front page.

With up to ten thousand submissions a day, Digg is a rich marketplace of story ideas for journalists looking for trends. I first stumbled upon Digg in November 2005 when it was geared toward technology stories, and found the inspiration for at least three ideas that eventually became published articles. Then, in late February 2006, when a colleague’s story hit the front page, I realized that Digg wasn’t just a source of story ideas but also could be a way to promote my own work to a larger audience. I sent in a story I wrote for Seedmagazine.com. It hit Digg’s front...

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