Feedburner co-founder Matt Shobe has joined BigDoor, a Seattle startup that helps online publishers engage with readers and viewers by establishing leaderboards, badges and other game-oriented services. Shobe, who most recently worked as a user experience designer in Google’s Seattle office, is serving as the company’s new chief design officer.

You may recall that Google gobbled up Feedburner in 2007 for a reported purchase price of $100 million, so his involvement in BigDoor is certainly a big shot in the arm.

The company — led by former Zango CEO Keith Smith — raised a $5 million venture round last summer from Foundry Group, Founder’s Co-op and others.

Smith said they are excited to have Shobe on the team, which has now grown to about 20 people.

“His knowledge of design and user experience coupled with his background of working not only at Google but also having successfully navigated several startups will undoubtedly help shape BigDoor as we continue to grow and iterate our product and create a ubiquitous gamification platform,” Smith said. Shobe holds a graduate degree from University of Washington’s Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering

BigDoor just released a free version of its online service, a system now used by Seattle area companies such as Cheezburger, BuddyTV and DevHub.

John Cook is co-founder of GeekWire, a tech news site in Seattle. Follow on Twitter: @geekwirenews.

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