Yahoo Buzz debuted in beta overnight, and at first glance it looks and behaves exactly like Digg. Vote stories up and the most-buzzed appear on Yahoo’s home page. But there’s one big difference: you can’t submit a story. Explains Wired‘s Scott Gilbertson: “Buzz aggregates stories from select publishers and then users can vote them up or down. While that means Buzz will lack the variety of sources that you’ll find on Digg, it also handily eliminates a good bit of spam and the pointless link bait articles that clutter up the Digg homepage.”
So who are these select publishers, and how do we get on the list? After scanning the stories, you’ll see mainstream publishers like Washington Post, bigger independent sites like Huffington Post as well as the occasional WordPress blog. Interestingly, Yahoo says smaller sites will probably not make the Yahoo home page because of the “Digg effect” (their sites will crash). Publishers who want to get on the list are told Yahoo Buzz will “be accepting more publishers soon” and to sign up for an email.
I think Yahoo Buzz is an interesting idea, especially since it combines search popularity with voting to create that Buzz score. The tech-savvy folks, though, will stick with Digg. Yet the massive reach of Yahoo will pull in mainstream users who might think this is all that and a slice of bread. But the big question is, why didn’t Yahoo do this sooner?