Following the recommendation by Everton over at Connected Internet, I’ve decided to give Spotplex a whirl. It’s a news aggregator that, unlike Digg, can’t be gamed by the users. This is what Spotplex have to say about themselves:

Spotplex provides internet users with real-time ranking of blog articles based on actual impression count. In other words, you can find what is the hot news today, this week, or this month in real time at Spotplex. This is not a list of articles people recommended or voted for, but a list of articles read most in a given timeframe.

In essence, what Spotplex is offering is Digg without the cheating. It highlights popular stories around t’internet and showcases them on the front page. Rather than have the Digg Mafia decide what people should see, the people decide themselves.

Of course, a problem here is that the popular sites will dominate the Spotplex rankings. It doesn’t take a genius to work that one out but, according to this article on Techcrunch, the Spotplex guys are looking at putting in some kind of weighting system or handicap system to allow for a level playing field.

Spotplex is still in beta so it’s early doors (you can apply by sending an email to signup@spotplex.com) but I’m interested to see how this one develops. I’m not normally an early adopter but I can see this as being a serious contender to topple Digg.

Spotplex, Digg, Web 2.0

UPDATE 12 JUNE: I’ve dropped Spotplex after 3 months. It didn’t work out for me and I found the stats pretty unreliable. Still, if you don’t try you don’t know, eh?