Bing Now Bigger than Digg, CNN and Twitter

With the headlines that Microsoft’s new search engine Bing has been grabbing, it’s easy to forget that it only went live about a month ago. Since its launch at the beginning of June, it has given Google pause and even had its own web infomercial.

But none of that matters if Bing doesn’t grow and find a way to compete with Google. So after a month, where are we? We knew that Bing was growing, but the numbers being released tonight tell a tale of success, as Bing is now the 13th most visited site on the web.

Facebook Fan Pages: Embeddable Facebook Pages

Facebook continues to extend outside the walls of its social network. The latest: Facebook Fan Boxes, which lets Facebook Page admins embed the latest activity from their Page on their own website.

Google Drops a Nuclear Bomb on Microsoft. And it's Made of Chrome

Wow. So you know all those whispers about a Google desktop operating system that never seem to go away? You thought they might with the launch of Android, Google’s mobile OS. But they persisted. And for good reason, because it’s real.

In the second half of 2010, Google plans to launch the Google Chrome OS, an operating system designed from the ground up to run the Chrome web browser on netbooks. “It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be,” Google writes tonight on its blog.

I knew they would be out there. In moments, Twitter Search proved me right:

@scooplarue: Anyone else sick of Digg being nothing but a propaganda vehicle for Bush Derangement Syndrome and the jihad against conservatism? #TCOT

And:

@duperdave: 7 reasons why I hate digg. 1. Bush is satan! 2. Obama is god! 3. Obama's blackberry is Jesus! 4. I love the enviroment! ...

The technical term for this is 'leveraging social media brands.' Or, more specifically: frustration at the fact that the other team does it better than you. But these explanations still neglect to include an adequate description of a particular self-conscious, spoiled-juvenile rage that is often at the root of what motivates much of this success on the left, of a type described by Michael Gerson in today's Washington Post:

Most of us have witnessed this attitude, usually in college. The kids who employed contempt instead of argument, who shouted down speakers they didn't agree with, who thought anyone who contradicted them had a lower IQ, who talked of "reason" while exhibiting little of it. They were often not the brightest of bulbs. Most people recover from this childish affliction. Some do not.

And now the shouting is happening in new ways. In spaces open to the masses. So the question becomes: To what extent should conservatives get involved in this behavior on/at/among these established networks?

Or should conservatives make a deliberate move away from trying to emulate the rage of their opponents here? Is 'competing' at Digg a waste of time for conservatives?

I think pushing links and articles and posts that tout your side and doing so effectively does not by itself signal "derangement." I think that is too easy. But it plays a role, as these two tweeters point out.

Mass use of Digg to push agendas in this way has been with us for awhile. But more individuals and groups are getting into it. And there is more to come. Digg "Action Alerts" are big among some anti-Israel groups, for instance. And pro-Israel forces, strong on Facebook, are encouraged to catch up on Digg. [Israel and the Web: sounds like the next way-too-long cover story at Atlantic Monthly.]
A discussion of whether Digg is "anti-Israel" is here. Not surprisingly, it's not really much of a "discussion." One thing is unclear: If "Digg is anti-Israel," do we mean those who run the site itself, or the community that shows up every day there?

If the Digg wars are lost, or seem lost, so what. Find new ways to win. This really isn't all that Digg is about anyway. Conservatives know just what is effective message delivery, message sharing, and community building. Rage is not essential to any of those. We will never, ever be able to out outrage these people. Never.

And so of course, as I get set to sign off on this, CNN's "Digg Dialogue" conducts an interview with John Boehner.  Proof Digg is not biased! But even though the video is dated today, it won't run, for some reason.

Derangement is building. I can feel it.