By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Duncan Riley over at the Inquisitr has a very thought-provoking piece on what may happen to Digg if the rumored $200 million purchase deal between Digg and Google goes through as planned.   Will Digg become a central important plank of the Google empire or will it become another Feedburner / Jaiku and stagnate into nothingness?

Think about all the companies that Google buys up and then consider all the development and promotion Google then does on those companies – either it’s very little or zero.   Feedburner is a prime example.   Where is the much talked about “Google accounts” integration we keep hearing so much about?   Are they ever going to do it or is it just talk?   Me thinks it’s all hogwash.

With all the money that Google has in their coffers, they have the power to do a lot of good things for the Internet, but they also have the power to make a lot of purchases which they can then instantly forget about.   They’re like a spoilt rich kid who walks into a toy store and asks their parents for a ton of toys which they have absolutely no intention of playing with ever again – but they demand them because they can.    These purchases then sit in a cupboard unused, unappreciated and wasted.

Is Digg going to suffer this kind of fate if Google gets their claws into them?    Will Google buy them just to prove that they can?    Will they then sit in the corner of the internet neglected and unloved?    I never thought I would say this, but maybe it would be for the best if Microsoft was to win this one.    What do you think?