Google recently launched its own version of Digg called “What’s Popular”. This tool is an addon for your iGoogle page if Google's New Social Media What's Popularyou have one. Within What’s Popular, you can view the most recent, most popular or the most relevant stories, images or videos based on your preferences. Each link gives you the option to vote (called pops) for the site.  The more “Pops” a site gets, the higher it is on the list (much like Digg/Reddit). Submitting a link to What’s Popular could not be any easier put a link in and click add and you are done. Now you do have the option to change the title and the description if you would like but it is not a requirement. Google of course has an algorithm in place that decides what to display for you in your window which can be a good thing and a bad thing depending how they figure this out. Some say it is based off your search history which makes sense but that can be a bad thing depending on if you’re searching something different every day.

The few questions on everyone minds are:  Will most links fall by the waste side similar to Digg, Reddit, Mixx ect or will there be something special in place that may help a link get shown more even if it doesn’t have tons of “Pops”? The one thing that seems to frustrate many people is the fact that it is the same sites that are topping the “Popular” tab on Digg and half the time they don’t seem to belong up there but somehow get up there. Will everyone have a chance to be on the top of this list or will the same thing happen that happens on most social sites.  What does this “What’s Popular” mean for SEO… Well we do not really know yet. We do not know if it will provide a backlink or more importantly how much traffic it will generate for us and for our clients. Only time will tell.