User-driven news site Digg announced a major expansion today that will include doubling its staff, growing internationally, improving infrastructure and developing new features. The company raised $28.7 million in a new round of funding led by Highland Capital Partners to finance its progress, according to Jay Adelson’s post on the Digg blog.

Although still unprofitable, Digg has now raised $40 million to date, Brad Stone writes in a blog post at The New York Times.

Andy interviewed Digg founder Kevin Rose at the MIT Technology Review summit in September of last year, and I reposted the interview above.

Digg’s international initiative is especially crucial for the company to move forward, as international users account for almost half of its 30 million monthly uniques. Digg plans to introduce local versions of the site in local languages, although Jay writes that won’t begin laying the groundwork until early 2009.

According to Alexa data, India and the UK are the top two foreign users of the site, driving eight percent and six percent of its traffic, retrospectively.

Kelsey Blodget, Associate Producer