It sounds like they are using one row in a super column family per user with one super column per item; a subcolumn for an item super column represents a friend who dugg the item. At least in pycassa, this makes an insert as simple as:
column_family.insert(user, {item: {friend: ''}})
They could also have done this a couple of other ways, and I'm not sure which they chose.
One is to use a standard column family, use a (user,item) combination for the row key, and use one column per friend who dugg the item:
column_family.insert(user + item, {friend: ''})
Another is to use a standard column family, use just (user) for the row key, and use an (item, friend) combination for the column name:
column_family.insert(user, {item + friend: ''})
Doesn't sound like this is what they used, but it's an acceptable option as well.