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Rumor Mill: Google Acquiring Digg

posted on June 13, 2008


It seems Digg can’t avoid rumors that it’s up for sale. The social news site has been the subject of acquisition rumors for more than two years now.

According to ValleyWag’s rumor, Google is the latest company sniffing around Digg.

…we hear [Google's Marissa] Mayer is pushing hard for an acquisition of Rose’s Digg, for a price below $200 million…A source familiar with the talks says Google and Digg reached an agreement last month; it’s not clear whether the offer was verbal or a formal termsheet. So why the delay? One possibility: Digg may have been exploring whether it could hire a rock-star CEO and raise more money.

Why would Google want Digg? Well, a couple hundred million is nothing to Google. Even if Digg users were to abandon ship, Google would have its hands on valuable algorithms and data on what makes a news story popular.

Of course, I can save them the cash and tell them.

What makes a story popular on Digg? Apple, Google, Linux, Nintendo, or anything promoted by a social media marketer. ;-)


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  • http://www.samuellavoie.com/ Samuel Lavoie

    “What makes a story popular on Digg? Apple, Google, Linux, Nintendo, or anything promoted by a social media marketer.”

    I’ll correct to “anything promoted by a good social media marketer who understand the conversations going on those medias.”

    About Digg, I hope they can stay as useful as they are with more features to enhance community empowering.

    Samuel Lavoie’s last blog post..Silverlight, the Microsoft RIA, Keynote at the W3Québec meetup

  • http://www.newhomessection.com Jayson

    Well Google is a few acquisitions away from owning the Internet. I think they’re trying to make sure everyone that uses the Internet touches one of their properties everyday. They’re getting close to doing it too – it’s going to be hard for Microsoft to touch Google if they keep building their brand like they are (not that Microsoft isn’t going to have a hard enough time as was).

    I wonder how long it’s going to take for them to combine YouTube, Digg, Google Pharmacy, Google Search and Yahoo News, real estate, cars etc.. into one site, one user profile etc.. in a few years, they’ll be able to feed products to consumers as they need them just like a prescription.

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  • http://www.getelastic.com Linda Bustos

    Maybe G wants to throw AdSense up on it?

    Linda Bustos’s last blog post..Internet Retailer 2008 Live Blogging + Commentary Digest

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  • http://www.srery.com RIchard Srery

    It eems today that if you create an attractive social network of almost any sort, Google begins to sniff around. IN this case I do not know if the rumor really hold much water or not. ONe thing is for sure, Google, who by the way claims they do not know how to make money on YouTube (Now that’s funny NOT!) has an acquisitions strategy that is neting them millions.

  • http://ww.seoresults.co.za Web Marketing Man

    The Google juggernaut is ever hungry and sniffing around in the internet world looking for something to gobble up. If not Digg, what next?

  • http://www.netage.co.za Goran Web Design

    I agree with Web Marketing Man, Google will buy anything that is a good buy, and Digg is a great tool to communicate to the world.

  • http://mp3leben.com Tiffany

    But that has not explained why Digg, not another social networking such as StumbleUpon?

  • http://www.direito2.com.br Ruben Zevallos Jr.

    I think Google can buy anything and anyone…they have the money and the Internet at their hands… But I still do not understand what Digg and other favorites sites are so important to this big companies…

  • http://www.evawhite.com Eva White

    While they have the money to buy anything, they are not foolish to spend it that way. I don’t think that this is a rumour that has much to it. After all what does Digg offer Google in monetory terms?

    Eva White’s last blog post..Canada’s Apology To The Indian People

  • http://articlewonders.com Raj Krishnaswamy

    I think this acquisition might be good for all of us in the long run, so there is some uniformity. There might also be some additional improvements to the algorithms planned.

  • http://www.mbwebdesign.co.uk MB Web Design

    I disagree completely that this is a wise investment.

    “Google would have its hands on valuable algorithms and data on what makes a news story popular.”

    This is true, but only of a very narrow demographic. In pseudocode, the algorithm seems to be

    if post contains(“Ron Paul”,”digg”,”apple”,”obama”){
    put on frontpage
    }
    else{bury}

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