What do you do when your website's users gang up and revolt against you? San Francisco-based Digg.com, a website that displays links to articles and postings based on how highly they're ranked by members, experienced user rebellion earlier this week. The site banned members from posting a software code that allows online pirates to bootleg copies of movies. Many of Digg's 1.2 million registered users banded together to send Digg a message, some by trying to get around Digg's text filters by linking instead to photos and drawings featuring the code. Late Tuesday, Digg gave in to user demands. "You'd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you," Kevin Rose blogged.

But now, Digg may have to contend with another set of critics--entertainment-industry lawyers. Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff said that though Digg has appeased its member for the short-term, the larger legal battle could be the company's demise.

Small businesses are going strong, according to the April 2007 SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard, an economic indicator that tracks the health of U.S. small businesses. "Despite all the economic doomsayers out there, 2007 is turning out to be a great year for America's small-business owners," says Michael Alter, president of SurePayroll. "We haven't see any slowdown in small-business hiring."
 
The SurePayroll Hiring Index ended the month at 10,600, a 42-point increase (39 percent) from March. That's the highest level for the index since SurePayroll started tracking the small-business economy in January 2004. Salaries also increased in April. The SurePayroll Pay Index clocked in at 1,038 at the end of April, up four points from March, or 30 percent. The average small-business salary for the United States is now $31,892.
 
SurePayroll's analysis is based on payroll records of over 18,000 companies who use SurePayroll's payroll service. For more details on the SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard, visit SurePayroll's website.