We have conducted two surveys of compact groups of galaxies in the Southern emisphere, one at z <= 0.03 and another at 0.05 <= z <= 0.2, with the aim of studying the evolution of the group member galaxies and the groups themselves. Most of the observed targets are physically bound structures with a high density on the sky and a crossing time tau <= 1 Gyr. We conclude that either compact groups are stabilized somehow by their dark matter halo or that we observed two distinct generations of compact groups.