A WEBSITE set up by an Examiner columnist crashed after almost a million George Best fans visited it.
Terry George, of Stainland, runs www.gone toosoon.co.uk, a site that pays tribute to the dead, whether they are famous or not.
Families can set up their own pages and visitors are encouraged to leave messages.
Terry, a businessman who owns bars and a nightclub in Leeds, also writes a gay life column in the Examiner's Monday entertainment supplement, Fresh.
The family of football legend George Best, who died on Friday, set up an online memorial - but it caused chaos due to its instant popularity.
A short tribute prompted huge numbers of fans to add their own thoughts and memories.
Within 24 hours of its launch, more than 950,000 people visited - sending the whole network crashing for Terry and his company.
Terry, who runs the site with Liam Gill from Leeds, said: "We set up the site after losing close friends and thought that other people who had lost friends and family would find it helped them deal with the grieving process."
There are already a number of high profile memorial sites set up, such as PC Sharon Beshenivsky who was killed in Bradford last week.
Terry, 40, continues: "The George Best site really took us by surprise.
"I had to call in my technical team urgently as the volume of traffic sent all the servers crashing, including those we use for other companies."
Though they have no objection to the site being used for celebrity memorials, Terry and Liam insist the site isn't just a place for the famous. He said: "The site was set up for everyday people."
John Kirby from Brighton, who lost his son Billy, aged seven, set up a memorial site earlier this year.
He said: "I visit the site each day and see the lovely comments people leave about my son."
The site is now up and running again. Go to george-best@gonetoosoon.co.uk
