Digg launches Firefox toolbar with live notifications

Digg has just released a new extension for Firefox 3 that integrates whatever page you're on with the popular social news site. Included are handy things like a real-time pop-up window that notifies you when friends have dugg something, or when new stories hit the front pages of various sections. There's also a toolbar that can be toggled on the top of your browser which shows you if a page you're on has been submitted to Digg along with options to submit it yourself or read the user comments.

The extension only works in Firefox 3 but joins a previously existing offering that displays most of the same information from a drop down command menu. The newer version has a much more svelte look that can be toggled to exist off-screen with a click of a button.

One thing that's missing, and something I hope gets added in a future version is a way to get real-time notifications when certain stories hit the upcoming section. As I've ranted about before, the upcoming section is harder to parse than it used to be, even with the inclusion of the recommendation engine. Being able to pick out stories you want to hear about based on what site they're coming from, or with certain keywords would make it an extension worth keeping installed.

Digg's creator Kevin Rose has put together a quick screencast of the toolbar in action, which I've embedded below.