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I would have thought Google had learned their lesson about doing limited roll-outs: that artificially limiting the network effect kills your product. What work
by smackfu 16y ago
I would have thought Google had learned their lesson about doing limited roll-outs: that artificially limiting the network effect kills your product. What worked for GMail hasn't worked anywhere else.
- fletchowns 16y agoSeemed to do nothing but the opposite when they rolled out gmail.
- smackfu 16y agoMy argument would be that GMail didn't need network effects since it was just email and you could easily use GMail while your friends still used whatever they used to use. Contrast to Wave where limited invites kept your friends from using it which kept you from using it.
- ChrisArchitect 16y agothis music thing isn't a social thing at all really though, it's pure utility and convenience. In this form anyways.
- citricsquid 16y agogmail was a product that was superior to anything any one had used before. If they were rolling out gmail today (assuming current gmail exists and is owned by another company) it would not work.
- bittermang 16y agoWell, Gmail was also, you know, useful. Limited availability and invites worked because you were using this useful thing no one else had, and telling them about it made them want it, and then you held the keys to let them in. It lended itself to that kind of natural organic yet viral growth.
- kin 16y agovs the full roll out that was Google Buzz? Limited roll outs are common for Betas. Had Buzz been a limited roll out they would have recognized its faults much earlier and there would have been less privacy issues.
- igorgue 16y agoGithub would disagree. I think they had success generating buzz out of their invites, remember that wave and buzz were trending on Twitter for weeks. I don't really think this kills products, just sets expectations really high, if they match (Gmail) then good, if they not (Wave) then bad.
- thomasgerbe 16y agoSvpply, Dribbble, Gmail, and Hulu all started with limited roll-outs.