Rob Hof at The Tech Beat says that Digg may be expanding to include politics. Or, using another brand. Or something...here's what Hof has to say:

Digg, the collaborative tech news site, will soon branch out beyond geekdom. At a Web 2.0 panel at the eBay Developers Conference today, President Kevin Rose said that in the next month or so, the popular site--where people vote on stories submitted by others, with the highest vote-getters moving to the top of the front page--will add coverage of world news, entertainment, politics, and more. Major redesign is in the works.

It'll be interesting to see if Digg, and other nerdy sites like Techmeme.com that are trying to branch out beyond tech, will appeal to the general population. I think what they're doing--generally tapping into the zeitgeist using people's own opinions of the best articles and posts--has great potential value beyond tech news. But I wonder if the sites themselves can stretch their brand that far.

What Hof may not realize is that Techmeme branched out from memeorandum. Now, there's this other website. It's actually a good time to expand into other areas for news sites, since it's never been easier to find, aggregate, and republish news and opinion.

But it remains to be seen just what will happen with the greenlight crew, as granddaddy Slashdot has flirted with other content, but remained true to tech. and FARK.com has turned linking to things on the internet into an art-form. The strength of Digg was its purity, as a way to continue tech-lover's relationship to TechTV.

I'm wondering if Digg will be as all-powerful as Newsvine, or, you know...sorta like WizbangTech and the Wizbang Bomb Squad, only without the restrictions on what gets on the frontpage. While it's doubtful that Digg will change it's paradigm, the change to include other current events might be just the push people need to go back to Slashdot,