Tipster: Digg/Ask Project Launching "Very Soon"

We're still not sure what "content venture" IAC is hiring a general manager for (though we appreciate our commenters' suggestions!). But a reader tells us that a rumored collaboration between IAC's Ask and Digg.com, the crazily popular social news site, is indeed in the works, and will launch "very soon."

Our understanding is that Digg and Ask have essentially created a white-label version of Digg.com, much as Valleywag suggested in December. "I've seen it, and it looks great," our correspondent writes. We inquired with Ask, and got a "no comment at this time", but we got something slightly more encouraging from Digg's Jay Adelson: "We have no comment on our relationship with Ask, but will keep you updated!"

We look forward to hearing more. There have been multiple attempts to emulate Digg, and we've assumed that all of them would fizzle, a la AOL's Propeller. But a handful, like Conde Nast's Reddit, have flourished, and perhaps the Digg folks have some good ideas about how to rip themselves off replicate their success.

Update: We're told, indirectly (someone tells us they know someone who knows, essentially) that our tipster is wrong. A barnyard epithet was employed to describe the report's veracity. So - let us know directly. We're all ears: pkafka AT alleyinsider DOT com.

Followup: Here it is. "BigNews" is actually more of a Techmeme/Google News clone, with at least some involvement from Digg.