Google In Final Negotiations To Acquire Digg

I can't believe Digg is worth that much Dough ($200 Million).

I saw that too. I find it interesting, but I don't think Google will change Digg all that much other than maybe some of the advertising. However, Google has been experimenting with social search for a while now.

$200. That's a lot of money!
Do you think they will buy Digg to serve as an experiment platform?

I wonder if they want it for (behavioral) data, or advertising reach?

Originally Posted by Learning Newbie

I wonder if they want it for (behavioral) data, or advertising reach?

Their stated goal has been to organize and catalog the world's information. I would imagine that they are thinking that Digg would in some way allow them to capture and index relevant information because it's been filtered by real people. (In other news, our future Google supplied libraries are going to be filled with LOL cats, anti-Bush articles, music videos of Rick Astley, and billions of top ten lists.) I wouldn't be surprised if they tried combining it with Knol (their Wikipedia/Squidoo beta) or more probably with some sort of social search, which they're already experimenting with.

The behavioral data might be something they're after, but I would be surprised if they thought they could make a lot from advertising. A lot of the Digg users seem to have ad blocking software installed, if the comments are any indication. The user base is probably the most important part of Digg and Google is probably trying to make sure that it doesn't lag behind in an important sector of the internet. It's reminiscent of the YouTube buyout.

It's possible that buying Digg is a conservative and protectionist move rather than innovation-related.

Microsoft is acquiring search technologies...

Microsoft said on Tuesday that it would buy Powerset Inc., an Internet search company, the latest in a string of acquisitions aimed at bolstering its position online. Powerset, based in San Francisco, designs “semantic search” technology that contextualizes search queries to improve results. The size of the deal was not disclosed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/te...l?ref=business


Bill gates has been making speeches implying someone else could make better search technology than Google...

"We do not fear Google, but there is intense competition between us," Gates told the paper. He says that he has respect for the people who work there, but search can still be made a lot better than what Google has already achieved.

http://www.betanews.com/article/prin...gle/1130347248

although other commentators (!) feel that Microsoft is not that someone else:

Recent comments by Bill Gates about search technology are congruous with the idea of a future search moloch rising not out of the google-yahoo-even-msn world, but from the realm of thinkers - from the open source linux bog of eternal geekness.

< superfluous link drop removed >



And so, as is definitely the case in big business when you come under potential attack from serious opponents, Google is probably trying to embrace a longterm approach even more solid and reliable than whatever they've done so far, and that means looking for conservative moves, risk reduction and, above all, trying to stay a step ahead of your stalker (and Microsoft is stalking Google, hoping to destroy it and take its place as the global search provider to 100s of millions of people).

I admit it was superfluous, but it led to this link, which isn't superfluous and maybe is the one I should have posted!

http://www.helium.com/items/539113-s...they-are-today

When Google arrived on the market, it WAS the 'new leap' in searching, and before Google there is an assorted and seemingly brief history, with few genuinely revolutionary methodologies but many different ways of trying to solve the problems posed by SO MUCH DATA needing to be searched.

At that time my first port of call for any internet search was Webcrawler. Webcrawler may have been the closest precursor to Google. Whilst other search engines perhaps relied more on keyword tags and indeed submission data in order to define the entries to be searched, Webcrawler seemed to be an early attempt to do what has become Google's single most recognisable activity (from the point of view of the webmaster) - i.e. crawling through millions of pages, trying to make sense of them in advance.

It's all about how Google happened in the first place (and thus helpful when considering what may happen to google or what microsoft may do or what the open source universe may create, etc)

I'm sure Gates has respect for many of the people who work there.
They're his employees. Many people left Microsoft to work for Google.

I don't think digg will accept Google,....It is worth $200,.well Google is rich they can buy anything just like bill.

wow google will spend $200 for digg that's a lot of money... i wish i have a site like digg that google wants to buy..:-)

Originally Posted by psylocke

wow google will spend $200 for digg that's a lot of money... i wish i have a site like digg that google wants to buy..:-)

Would you really want to sell a golden goose? I think if I had the confidence to produce sites with traffic that google was interested in, my main interest would be dethroning google, not the reverse.

I wonder what will be next on the horizon for google if this deal does go through it is turning into an unstoppable empire.

Looks like the deal fell through. Google walked away.

Well with all that been happening with google stock and not any new results, they have to add another great site to their batch

Where do they get these valuations from its not worth anywhere near that, the same for when bebo was sold, i dont understand how they will ever get that money back ?

Woc

The vehavioral data provided by digg will be very useful for google, it's an strategic move.