An interesting article on Gigaom talks about social media and the concern with the growing number of fake or questionableÂ? stories on sites likeÂ? Digg. A story on Digg about Sony recalling their brand new console, Sony Playstation 3, fooled Diggers in the hundredsÂ? into clicking the story to prominence, despite the fact the story wasn’t actually true. Steve Rubel talks about the incident here.

The article includes a respectable source in the title, Reuters, and I really don’t find it that suprising that readers would fail to actually look beyond the single post to confirm the story. Digg is supposed to be a trusted site, one that provides a valuable service to those looking to filter the content that appeals to them. I understand that this is something that cannot be ignored, mostly because these types of stories can be tracked back and turn out to be a form of spamming. Om points to what he calls a must-read article by Niall Kennedy (Note: At this point I have not had a chance to read the article).

To cut Digg some slack, I was on my way to work this morning and had left early to avoid more of the rush and have more time for things like writing a post this morning. As usual, I tuned in to the trusty all-traffic station in Vancouver that features an eye-in-the-sky traffic helicopter. Going against my better judgement, I believed the report that traffic was only just starting to slow down right before the Port Mann bridge, and rather than taking the back roads I hopped on the freeway at 200th St. To my suprise, traffic was backed up to 192nd St, more than 40 blocks farther back than what the radio had reported, and suddenly my drive was longer than usual. I guess you can’t trust ANY sources.

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