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"As you may have heard, there is currently quite a controversy brewing over Google pulling down HuddleChat, a new application built on App Engine.  Mark, Sean, and I played with the chat application briefly the other night to sample Google\u2019s latest game-changer, and our general consensus was \u201Cmeh, it works.\u201D\nHowever, this apparently ruffled a few feathers at 37Signals, who offers their own chat product \u2013 Campfire - that has a striking resemblance to the HuddleChat demo.  Here\u2019s how Download Squad explains what happened:\n\u201CJust a day after going live, HuddleChat is no more. HuddleChat was a web-based multi-user chat room utilizing the new Google App Engine. It bore a striking resemblance to Campfire, a similar application from 37signals. The main difference was that Campfire used a freemium model (free for up to 4 users, fee for more users), while HuddleChat was completely free.\u201D\nSo, essentially, Google pulled the plug on a \u201Cclone\u201D of a product that could potentially cost 37Signals a lot of business.  Of course, cloning of popular web products is nothing new \u2013 take for example the hundreds of Digg clones that have sprung up over the past few years.  However, when Google clones something and makes it free, it appears to be a different story \u2013 at least for 37Signals in this case.  Or is it?  Today\u2019s poll:\n\n\n\n{democracy:127}\n\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/04/09/huddlechat-poll/>