James Martin/CNET

Serial entrepreneur Kevin Rose, whose past project list includes the social news site Digg and the now-defunct microblogging service Pownce, is now said to be a Google employee.

According to "sources close to the situation" AllThingsD reports that Rose, along with a number of his employees from his startup incubator Milk have been hired by Google.

Google declined to comment, and Rose did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the initial report.

Rose jumped into tech stardom at an early age, appearing on TechTV and later a number of online shows through Revision3. His breakout hit was the social news site Digg, which lets users vote up stories that would then appear on a front page. After taking over CEO duties at Digg in 2010, Rose scaled back his role there last year, and now serves as an adviser instead.

Digg had originally been on the trajectory for a number of buyout deals. One $100 million offer from former Vice President Al Gore would have made Digg part of Gore's Current Media, and another from Google in 2008 would have valued the company in the ballpark of $200 million. Google reportedly walked away from that one in its final stages. Other rumored suitors at the time included Microsoft and two unidentified media companies.

While possibly unrelated, Rose this week shut down Oink, the first product from his startup and idea incubator Milk. The Oink service, which only lived for three months, let users assign review ratings for individual items--say, dishes on a menu--instead of just places.