

Why doesn’t Google build its own Digg like Yahoo and AOL did? - zaveri
http://venturebeat.com/2008/07/22/if-digg-is-worth-200m-how-much-are-yahoo-buzz-and-aols-propeller-worth/

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jm4
Google would probably spend a few million building a competitor and would then
have to fight tooth and nail for a position in the social news market. I would
imagine it's very unlikely they'd make significant progress.

I've read that Yahoo Buzz has quite a few users, but there's still not much
"buzz" around it. I didn't even know AOL was in this market.

It would probably be more worthwhile to take a few million dollars outside and
have a barbeque with it than to waste it trying to start a social news site.
Not to mention they're just going to get a bunch of bad press when they don't
completely dominate.

Buying the 800lb gorilla for $200M is a relative bargain. It's going to be
seen as a major coup in the acquisition frenzy that's been going on lately and
will ensure that when Microsoft gets into this market they'll be nothing but
another also-ran. On top of it all they get to take a very high profile
customer away from MSN.

