Yahoo Opens Buzz to All

The closed circle of publishers with access to Buzz will be pried open Tuesday night, when anyone can begin submitting links to be ranked.

When Yahoo’s Digg-like Buzz ranking system debuted in February, Yahoo opted to keep its fledgling service in the kiddie end of the pool for the first few months by closing content submission to all but a few select publishers. But Buzz is all grown up now, and Yahoo will open up the deep end on Tuesday night when Buzz moves out of Beta and into its final format, in which anyone can submit links.

Initially, only 100 publishers had access to Buzz, although that number expanded to 400 in the months following its public announcement. Moving out of that calm, roped-off section of the Web will subject Yahoo to the potential of exploitation, an issue competitors like Digg have already had to cope with.

However, unlike Digg, which ranks sites based on votes alone, Yahoo will also have some editorial control over what makes it to the top, allowing its owners to keep an eye on what gets front-page treatment and keep mischevious types from gaming the system.

Yahoo plans to officially fling open the doors on Buzz at 7 p.m. PDT Tuesday night.