Online News With a New Angle

But these hybrids are mostly the reverse of Netscape's -- a few user-controlled layouts in the form of most-viewed and most-e-mailed story lists, which are subordinated to the main, editor-controlled news layouts.

Calacanis described the role of Netscape editorial staff as "meta-journalism," which he defined as adding original research or context to stories that visitors deem popular. "Maybe it's a follow-up interview, fact-checking or research," he said.

One example he cited involved a story about an AOL subscriber who called customer service to cancel his account and tape-recorded the call. The AOL employee resisted the cancellation in the call, which was posted online.

"We called the person who had the AOL account and interviewed him," Calacanis said. AOL wound up firing the customer service staffer, he added.

The Netscape experiment is still early, but I am skeptical that its hybrid model will add any value to the core idea behind Digg -- exploiting the Internet's ability to give readers input on the journalism they consume.

Netscape would need high-powered reporters to add first-rate commentary and fact-checking. So far, its commentary strikes me as so anemic and wordy that it interferes with the site's real goal -- letting readers see what others find interesting.

This idea of peering over the shoulder of others is powerful. Digg offers a feature called "Digg Spy" that presents random lists of user actions in real time. It shows random activity occurring at any moment, such as who is voting on or submitting which stories. Digg has another social feature that lets users narrow their spying to stories submitted by or commented on by friends -- or any stranger they may choose.

Digg also is at the vanguard of a growing movement to build profiles of what people are doing online to help determine what they see. For example, Digg automatically creates profiles of registered users' interests by storing a record of the articles they've commented on or voted for.

"So down the road, Digg will become smarter and be able to recommend stories, based on your past Digging activities and those of your friends," said Digg co-founder Kevin Rose.

Adelson said Digg and its rivals eventually will give mainstream news sites valuable insights into what the public considers newsworthy.

"If you want to know what a particular group of people or the mass public care about today, I can know within seconds, versus waiting for the publication cycle to happen so you can look at your subscription data or Nielsen ratings," Adelson said.

Whether you buy into his optimism or not, Digg is experimenting with something important. And as news consumption becomes more personalized online, I believe this concept of letting readership patterns shape story presentation will offer valuable ways to preserve the shared news experience of the mass-media era.

Already, it is giving us intriguing new glimpses of what the masses are actually reading.

Leslie Walker welcomes e-mail atleslie@lesliewalker.com.