Digg engineers heading to Washington Post's SocialCode
SocialCode has not acquired Digg or its technology, and for now, the site will continue on without its engineering team.
Is Digg's turbulent run on the Web about to come to an end?
The social news site that was once the talk of Silicon Valley has given up its engineering team to Washington Post Company-owned SocialCode, Digg CEO Matt Williams announced this morning. SocialCode is a social advertising agency designed to improve marketing techniques on sites like Facebook and Twitter.
"At Digg, we have been studying social media since its inception," Williams said in a blog post. "From Digg Social Reader to Digg Ads, we established a new paradigm for content and advertising on the web. Joining SocialCode felt like a natural next step."
The Washington Post did not buy Digg outright, which means the social news site will continue on. However, it's unclear how the site will function without an engineering team holding it up. In his blog post, Williams only told users to "stay tuned and keep Digging." A rumor popped up late last month saying the Washington Post was in talks with Digg for an acquisition, though that suggested the entire site might be purchased.
Whether Digg will sell itself to another company remains to be seen. However, if it does, it likely won't be able to net anywhere near the kind of cash it was offered during its heyday in 2008 when Google was reportedly ready to drop $200 million to acquire the site before walking away from the deal. Digg was also a target for former Vice President Al Gore's Current Media, which was looking to pay $100 million for the site. Once again, the deal fell through.
Now, Digg is a shadow of its former self and watching its once-vaunted success slip away. The loss of its engineering team seems to indicate the end may be near.