I am Kevin Rose, Founder of Digg. AMA!

When did you "really" start using Reddit?

A few months after Digg launched I remember hearing about reddit launching, I went to check out the site and I can't recall if I signed up or not... I think my first account was a couple years ago.

Can we expect another episode of Diggnation in the future?

Diggnation got me through many boring winters. I'd really enjoy a reunion or two or 200.

Thanks, glad you enjoyed the show!

Good question, I'd love to do one, probably around SXSW or another conference -- I'll be in LA soon so I'll talk to Alex about it.

Video response: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67VZJE6WkG8&feature=youtu.be

You and Alex said there would be more shows! Don't let us down!

we'll do one, not sure when, but it will happen.

What is your biggest regret with Digg?

Video response: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4JDTFNt8Wc&feature=youtu.be

The part about the diggbar is actually untrue. Kevin conceived and championed the feature internally. During it's development people working on it definitely had varying levels of excitement about it; some were all for it, some were completely against it, and some of us were questioning wether the internet really needed another url shortener at all.

One of my personal concerns was around allowing users to opt-out as easily as possible. When we launched, I was satisfied, since clicking the x in the top corner would set a cookie for logged out users, and would change the preference for logged in ones. That is one lesson I carry with me... sometimes even a single click is too much.

Fun fact, the format of the diggbar short urls were as follows: d|u[0-4][a-zA-Z0-9]{1,6}, changing the first digit in the shortcode would actually change the behavior d0xxxxx was "never show the diggbar, 301 to the source always". I believe d2xxxxx was "respect the user's preferences, but show the diggbar if there are no preferences set".

Another fun fact: there was a easter egg where mario would run across the bar, knock the digg button for a mushroom, and collect some coins. It was so well hidden that I don't think anyone ever noticed it.

**I wrote some of the backend functionality around the diggbar

Steve, I was all for a URL shortener and tracking clicks to display counts on permalinks -- but I was always against framing content w/ a toolbar. The argument I was presented with (initially) was to displayed this bar for "power users" that opted in. Also, (not sure if you know this, was before your time) I killed the first toolbar that was born out of a dev hackathon.

Did you immediately regret posting an AMA? And are you currently closing your eyes hoping it will go away?

Having built Digg, I have a pretty thick skin, this thread is pretty tame actually.

Why did you kill Diggnation? I really, really, really enjoyed that show.

Was it just not as fun as it used to be?

It was a great run, we needed a (liver) break after all those episodes. I'm sure Alex and I will do something again in the future.

Proof in case anyone is wondering https://twitter.com/kevinrose/status/230484065659281409

Also a Kevin Rose and Leo Laporte AMA at the same time, awesome.

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Now that's out of the way, I would like to say I've been a fan for a while. You were awesome on TechTV, Digg was awesome back in the day, Diggnation was the show I looked forward to every week, and I loved the more geeky shows like thebroken and the early days of systm when you hosted (not that Patrick isn't totally kickass).

Okay, questions:

• Now that diggnation has been done for a little while, what do you miss the most about doing that show every week?
• Also, is it weird working at such a big company like Google after having mostly worked on projects started or cofounded by you. I guess the specific job you have at Google fits your personality fairly good

Re: Diggnation, I'll read stories throughout the week or see a funny article and it sucks not having a venue to talk about it. I also miss hanging w/ Alex, we always had a lot of fun doing the show.

Re: Google, actually really loving it. I've always loved working w/ other entrepreneurs and angel investing, now I can do that fulltime. Also, the Google Ventures team is filled w/ brilliant people, I have much to learn.

Leo and Kevin doing AMA's on the same day? My life has been made, the world can now end.

That's how I got the idea, saw Leo's post!

How's things going over at Google?

Video response: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Uk83shZsg&feature=youtu.be

How do you feel about that overused picture of you with the headphones around your neck?

Video response: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohAOqC6suMg&feature=youtu.be

What do you think of the new Digg? Is it weird not to be part of it?

Video response: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBOCu3i0zKU&feature=youtu.be

How often do you see the diggnation crew anymore?

I see Prager at least twice a week, Glenn every couple weeks.

What do you think of the criticism of you that the reason so many of your projects fail to reach their potential because you have a tendency to check out after the initial development phase?

That story was very one sided and clearly some of the interviews were with people that had an axe to grind. I spent 7yrs of my life at Digg, 7yrs of my life hosting shows on Revision3 (which the article failed to mention was sold successfully to Discovery for $35M).

There is no doubt at times I was frustrated and distracted, I have a little ADD like that, but I really think this story played that up.

Have you tried Google Glass?

Yes

What is your favorite beer?

I've been enjoying the Almanac beer's lately http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24940

Hey Kevin, I'm a huge fan! I have a couple questions. It would mean a lot if you could answer them.

• What advice do you have for an aspiring entrepreneur?
• If you were to choose one major for aspiring entrepreneurs, aside from a CS Major, what would you say is the most essential?

re: advice, don't look for outside validation of your ideas, if you believe in it, go build it.

re: CS, CS or Business

What's going on with the Random Show? I loved watching that, you and Tim Ferris make an awesome team. You've got to have some new video projects in the works, what's next?

We need to shoot another episode of Random, it's been too long. Also, just shot a few more episodes of Foundation, expect to see them out soon at foundation.kr.

Thanks for watching.

[deleted]

He lives in LA, so it's hard.

What is the next big trend in the internets?

• Neighborhood social networks (eg. nextdoor.com)
• Quantified self (eg. fuelband, fitbit)
• internet connected home devices (eg. Apple TV)

I demand a picture of toaster, your super adorable puppy!

twitter.com/toasterpup

Why do you think Pownce never took off?

It did, it's called Yammer. We should have seen the need in the business space and pursued that.

Is it awkward working for Google when you're such an Apple fanboy? Have they got you converted to Droid yet?

The awesome thing about Google is that they don't force anything on you, I use an iPhone/Air and Android tablet. We build great software for iOS (love Chrome).

KR

When was the busiest time in your career?

Digg in 2005/6.

What do you think of the current state of G4?

I haven't watched the network in years.