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Well - maybe it's marketing driven. But maybe it's testing driven as they claim. In a way it's a bit catch-22. If they let everyone in - and they run into pr

Well - maybe it's marketing driven. But maybe it's testing driven as they claim. In a way it's a bit catch-22. If they let everyone in - and they run into problems - then they've obliterated themselves instantly. And that's just what happened with Wave. Invites weren't hard to come by... and people just bailed on it and didn't come back. But not opening it up - as you say - risks expectations that are too high as the buzz continues to build. Mind you - I never heard anyone complain about the quality of the iphone after they waited in line several days before hand. Not saying the google+ will meet expectations in the same way. But you know - it's seems preferable to have maximal buzz than minimal in just about all scenarios.

zeemonkee 15y ago
There's a difference between queuing for an iPhone and queuing for G+. When you stand in a queue, you know how long you have to wait. It's fair as everyone knows their position in the line. G+ is a queue where instead of letting people in according to how long they've waited they pick some people at random from the queue, even if those people have been standing for just a few minutes at the tail of the queue. Nobody knows how long they have to wait. Limited invites would have been far better - same way they rolled out Gmail. The problem is that the crappy invite system is turning people off - they try their invite, it doesn't work and they don't come back. I've decided not to bother any more with G+ right now. Maybe I'll come back to it in a few weeks or so but right now it just seems to be full of hard core geeks - the same people I follow on HN or Twitter anyway. None of my immediate friends or family are there so there's very little to keep me there.