Renewed Rumor: Google to Buy Digg
Today’s buzz in the Web 2.0 world is about TechCrunch’s latest report on Google’s efforts to buy Digg, a very popular site where people can share and vote on content, much like Babbledog, the site on which I work. The article in C|Net made me think of some of the conversations we’ve had about media convergence because people express concern about what is happening as larger companies, like Google and Yahoo, are buying independent sites where folks have been posting content and building communities. What happens when a few major companies own everything? “Digg commenter Hiji writes, ‘This is the beginning of the end. In a few years all the major blogs and social-media sites will be owned by large corporations, putting us right back where we started.’” One of the values some people find in blogs and Web 2.0 sites is that many are owned by independent companies or run by individuals—a break from media conglomerates that frequently seem to repeat the same content as many other news organizations instead of bringing us new perspectives and items.
Much like the situation with LiveJournal’s sale to SUP, many people wonder what the impact of Digg’s potential sale might have on its community. Will Google or any other buyer try to radically change community policies and behavior? Will they respect the established community and pretty much leave things as they are? As Harrison Hoffman speculates in the C|Net article, is Google primarily trying to acquire Digg for its community? How will an influx from Google’s users alter Digg?
While negotiations with Digg have been going on, Google did make its next big purchase: the Roman Catholic Church. (Yes, that’s supposed to be a joke, but the discussion about Google potentially buying Digg is not.)
