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I must say, Google's decision to make Google+ invite only was puzzling at first but its quite obvious now isn't it? It's much like how Facebook grew by restric

I must say, Google's decision to make Google+ invite only was puzzling at first but its quite obvious now isn't it? It's much like how Facebook grew by restricting its service only to the top schools. This gained more hype for them as people saw that the 'elite' were using facebook and loving it. Now we have personal invites to those who have a strong voice in the tech industry generating lots of good publicity for them. I'm not saying your a Silicon Valley elite if you have google+ account. But I think that the decision to keep google+ a private was more marketing, then a technical decision.

Lewisham 15y ago
No, it's very clear why Google+ is invite only. Google+ is in field test. It needed to be tested publicly in order to start really getting a good understanding of what users are doing and what the scaling problems are. There are already a bunch of things that are essentially getting hotfixes in < 1 week. The only reason that Google+ was announced was that this process couldn't have been done in secret. I'm sure if there was a way to have got everyone in at the same time, they'd have done it.
- krashidov 15y ago
  Hmm perhaps, but were google+ invites completely random? If so, then I probably am wrong and it truly was a technical field test with no marketing gimmicks. Either way, having a closed invitation has genuinely made me more interested in the product.
  - Lewisham 15y ago
    Invites were not random. Google chose those to invite.
    - Nemisis7654 15y ago
      Would you happen to know how they chose? I am just curious.
      - clawr 15y ago
        I work at Google. An invite form was sent to employees prior to launch.
        Nemisis7654 15y ago
        Okay, thanks. What about non-Googlers? I feel like there would have to be some sort of algorithm that did it for you, what with how many people use Googles' services.
- DrCatbox 15y ago
  I found many bugs and lack of features, for example, there is no advance search, you can only search by names, not company or place or gender? Have not figured out how to send messages to my friends, or do I have to share something only with them? The "Limited"/Public link to view who you shared something with is kind of hidden, would be nice to see which circles a share is visible without clicking something. There is actually not very much I can do right now. I click on cirlces, yeah it is a nice interface. A lot of my friends dont seem to understand how to share content with me even after they added me to a circle. Not much happens at all.
  - losvedir 15y ago
    >Have not figured out how to send messages to my friends, or do I have to share something only with them? Yeah, I think that's how it works. There's also a chat box on the left, which could be used for similar purposes.

Lewisham 15y ago

No, it's very clear why Google+ is invite only. Google+ is in field test. It needed to be tested publicly in order to start really getting a good understanding of what users are doing and what the scaling problems are. There are already a bunch of things that are essentially getting hotfixes in < 1 week. The only reason that Google+ was announced was that this process couldn't have been done in secret. I'm sure if there was a way to have got everyone in at the same time, they'd have done it.

krashidov 15y ago
Hmm perhaps, but were google+ invites completely random? If so, then I probably am wrong and it truly was a technical field test with no marketing gimmicks. Either way, having a closed invitation has genuinely made me more interested in the product.
- Lewisham 15y ago
  Invites were not random. Google chose those to invite.
  - Nemisis7654 15y ago
    Would you happen to know how they chose? I am just curious.
    - clawr 15y ago
      I work at Google. An invite form was sent to employees prior to launch.
      - Nemisis7654 15y ago
        Okay, thanks. What about non-Googlers? I feel like there would have to be some sort of algorithm that did it for you, what with how many people use Googles' services.
DrCatbox 15y ago
I found many bugs and lack of features, for example, there is no advance search, you can only search by names, not company or place or gender? Have not figured out how to send messages to my friends, or do I have to share something only with them? The "Limited"/Public link to view who you shared something with is kind of hidden, would be nice to see which circles a share is visible without clicking something. There is actually not very much I can do right now. I click on cirlces, yeah it is a nice interface. A lot of my friends dont seem to understand how to share content with me even after they added me to a circle. Not much happens at all.
- losvedir 15y ago
  >Have not figured out how to send messages to my friends, or do I have to share something only with them? Yeah, I think that's how it works. There's also a chat box on the left, which could be used for similar purposes.