GoPotato Viral Video Makers Try Hand at Web Software

The folks behind GoPotato.tv, makers of Eli’s Dirty Jokes and Tato Salad, have accumulated some 20 million views for their seven original series in the last two years. Tyler and James McFadden have raised money from friends and family and made some through the YouTube partner program. But what they really want to do…is make software.

The McFadden brothers’ next venture is SeenItYet, a sort of Digg for video (others like this include VideoSift and Video Bomb).

Right now the SeenItYet feature set is pretty limited. Basically people can submit videos to be voted up by the greater community to the “awesome” section, or they can send them to a private group of friends. Then you can see which of those friends viewed the video and host a private group comment section. There’s also a points system for participation and finding the best videos.

Things I would consider important — like a browser bookmarklet tool for easy video submission, and live chat — are supposedly in the works, but a site like this is really about the community it attracts anyways. And perhaps the GoPotato guys have just the right friends to get things started.

The McFadden brothers say the site isn’t about promoting their own content, but rather finding the best video on the web in categories like comedy, science and tech, and animals. They outsourced development and design based on the kind of site they wanted for themselves and their friends. For now the site has no ads.

If you’d like to check out SeenItYet, use the invite code NTV100. Once you’re in the beta you can invite your friends to participate without them having invite codes.