Zuckerberg Zinger Backfires

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When tech entrepreneurs Brian Norgard and Dan Gould launched their website Chill, they got a good deal of interest and a lot of signups. Then – suddenly – a deluge.

What happened? The West Hollywood video-watching site got extra attention when it was criticized by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Chill, which launched Aug. 10, is a website where people can chat as they watch the same online video. Members have to sign up using Facebook accounts. The problem arose when Chill automatically posted a message on new members’ Facebook profiles. A lot of programs do that but it usually appears as a message from the application. Chill’s message looked like the member wrote the post, not the app – an Internet faux pas.

Zuckerberg, chief executive of the Palo Alto social network, saw one of the posts and commented: “That’s lame.” That got all over the tech blogosphere.

In response, Norgard and his six-person team removed the autopost feature and e-mailed Zuckerberg. By its third day, Chill had tens of thousands of members.

There are no hard feelings between Zuckerberg and Chill, Norgard said.

“We must be doing something half-interesting because you don’t get surface area with him unless you’re striking some chord,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chill has received an investment offer from well-known Silicon Valley tech blogger Michael Arrington, further raising the startup’s profile.

The idea for Chill came from one of Norgard and Gould’s other startups, Namesake, an advanced forum-style website where people have live conversations. A few months ago, Namesake members began using the website to chat as they watched TV shows and online videos. That led to the creation of Chill.

Chill members can sign up for free and then enter a chat-room-like forum called a “lounge” where they can watch themed videos, such as baseball bloopers or Michael Jackson performances.

Norgard isn’t worried yet about making the website a moneymaker. Instead, after the hectic beginning, he hopes things will settle down so the company can concentrate on improving Chill’s technology and adding members.

“All we’ve been focusing on is keeping up with the demand around Chill,” he said. “Now we’ve got to get back to work and focus in the experience and getting it right.”

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