Last month, Netscape unveiled a new version of its home page, closely modeled after the social news site Digg.com. Within weeks, Digg rolled out its own long-planned upgrade that took the news-discussion site from its tech roots into politics and world events. Now, as the battle heats up, TechCrunch reports that on July 24 Digg will be rolling out more new features, including sports topics, as well as two Flash-based "news visualization" tools. "The release, along with user stats that show massive growth," writes TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, has "pushed Digg into the consciousness of mainstream Internet users for the first time."

Some Digg regulars are skeptical of their site's broader ambitions. "I think Digg should have stuck to their core market - technology news," comments one TechCrunch reader. "The stories from every other category are, in my opinion, almost always sensational and worthless," says another. Others however welcome the broader mandate: "Now I won't ever have to go to any other websites. Digg will have everything I need," reads one Digg post. With community-filtered news edging towards mainstream acceptance, it seems likely that the pro-expansion camp will carry the day.

What do you think of the new Digg?