The buzz among the technophile blogosphere is that Google could easily and effectively put “a hurtin'” on Digg by tweaking Google Reader. An algorithm and, perhaps, buying out a social news site might be all that is needed.
Steve Mermelstein, at his indecipherable-unless-you’re-a-dyed-in-the-wool-code-geek blog www.usrbingeek.com, started the hubbub by suggesting Google Reader could be a Digg killer:
If Google Reader aggregated and displayed how many people Shared each post and then calculated the most popular ones and displayed them in a separate label (like they have for Stared and Shared) they could have a feature that kills Digg!
That idea resonated with more than a few others, eventually working its way up to the A-list bloggers.
“I don’t see this happening anytime soon, but as Google becomes more integrated in our lives the possibility looks more real,” writes Steve Rubel, who also suggested that Google could just as easily displace Yahoo-owned del.icio.us.
While it would be simple for the talent at Google to create their own sharing site with Google Reader, others suggest the search monster of Mountain View could purchase a site like TechMeme or Digg, leveraging already-established user bases.
“Imagine what’d happen if Google bought TechMeme,” writes Robert Scoble, “and used its algorithms on Google Reader feeds too.
“I do know that I’m really seeing some great blogging come through Google Reader – the result set is more diverse than TechMeme (more Z listers, yeah!) and more focused than Digg (less noise, more tech).”
With all the buzz around the possibility, we may be on to a real prediction for 2007: Google busts the block on sharing sites.
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