Social bookmarking website Digg has seen its UK figures dip a whopping 34 per cent after its redesign and 26 per cent in the US.

According to Hitwise, who has put on its hard hat and done some data mining on the new Digg site, the redesign has been rejected by the site's core users who were vital to the community spirit of Digg.

Robin Goad, research director at Hitwise, said about the exodus: "Unhappy with the way Digg has changed, many of the high-profile power users publicly rebelled by switching to another social bookmarking site, reddit.com."

He does note, however, that despite the public defections to Reddit, the site has not actually seen a spike in traffic because of this.

Figures show that it is up just 2.6 per cent in August.

Don't alienate

Digg's redesign at the tail-end of August was met largely with disdain from regular users and prompted CEO Kevin Rose to write a blog post about the quick fixes he was implementing to appease the Digg masses.

The blog post was titled 'Digg v4: release, iterate, repeat' with Rose explaining that: "Our top priority is to stabilise the site, then we'll look at the data/feedback and make decisions on what to change going forward."

According to Hitwise's figures, the new Digg has seen a steady decline in readership, from its day of release to 18 September.

Goad explains it best in his blog when he notes: "The internet can be a fickle creature, but if there is one lesson that seems to consistently ring true it's this: don't alienate your core users."