Is Google going for Digg now?

If you check the new iGoogle gadgets, you’d probably notice an interesting new gadget there: What’s Popular. Okay, so iGoogle has new gadgets every now and then, what’s so special about this new one? Well, if you check out the gadget, it has lots of similarities with the social media voting service Digg. The Google gadget allows users to find what’s popular on the web by 1) submitting links, 2) voting on links, and 3) letting an algorithm do the rest.

Don’t believe me? Think of it this way: do you have a site to share? Submit it as a “pop.” Like a post? Vote it up and you’ll see the pop count increase instantly. Plenty of other sites offer that kind of functionality so why not Google? After all, they’ve been trying it out in search results for quite some time.

Of course, it’s not an actual Digg clone. You see, What’s Popular won’t just depend on user input. Google’s service can also figure out certain popular items all on its own, thanks to the massive amount of metrics they are able to pull in from all over the internet. Search, Reader, Analytics, GMail, YouTube – they’re all providing Google with background data that can be used to compute popular items as well.

However, it’s still just an iGoogle gadget, not a full-fledged service. Since iGoogle gadgets won’t be as easily accessible as, say, Digg, it means that it won’t drive traffic to a website like Digg, StumbleUpon, or even Yahoo Buzz can. It is possible that What’s Popular can be developed in the future to become a complete website with the same functionality. Don’t forget about the huge userbase already using iGoogle – that alone could drive masses of traffic to websites.

What do you guys think of this new gadget? Would you use it? Woul you want a full Digg-like website from Google as well?