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"Request an invite". Dear god, Google still thinking it's a cute little startup. It really is the Microsoft story all over again.
by onemorepassword 13y ago
"Request an invite".
Dear god, Google still thinking it's a cute little startup. It really is the Microsoft story all over again.
- manacit 13y agoFacebook has consistently done the same thing with all of their new features (Graph Search, Timeline, etc). I fail to see why this is so egregious?
- willy1234x1 13y agoTo add to that, Google has consistently done invite rollouts in their past like Gmail and Google+ to name a couple.
- tmzt 13y agoEarly on, in the "startup" stage which seems to be the point that comment was making.
- bennesvig 13y agoNot having immediate access to something makes people automatically want it more (generally).
- yebyen 13y agoThey could at least tell you which account has been signed up. Everything's so easy with 1-click, but now that I have multiple accounts signed in at the same time, I have no idea which one requested the invite and I'm going to have to continue to watch _all_ my inboxes... if it has an Android part, which it better, I sure hope I've linked the right account to the invite so that the device can download the app. grumble grumble It actually looks cool though.
- manacit 13y agoYou would hope -- I noticed the same issue. I ended up just opening an incognito window and logging into my main account that I use for e-mail and requested an invite there. Hopefully that'll make sure at least something lands into an inbox I check. I'm not going to complain though, I just want to try it out!
- yebyen 13y agoHaha... I did exactly the same thing. After, I realized it was so easy that it's really dumb to complain about it.
- movingahead 13y agoThis and all those other places offering a Google Oauth option prevents me from logging in to multiple accounts on my main browser (Chrome). Although if you do a Google Oauth, it will let you select which email you want to use. I hardly use anything else apart from my personal Apps account, and hence it makes sense to have only a single login on your main browser.
- axylone 13y agoIf you set up multiple Chrome users (Settings > Add New User), you can log into multiple google accounts at once.
- MatthewPhillips 13y agoIn general people don't like ads for things they cannot have.
- tantalor 13y agoWhat about movie trailers?
- MatthewPhillips 13y ago"coming to theaters July 4th..."
- epochwolf 13y ago"Independence Day 2: American Freedom"
- coldtea 13y agoYou'd be surprised. People literally lust into ads for "things they cannot have". That's also part of the success of all the "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" style shows and magazines on the poor/middle class.
- onemorepassword 13y agoIt's the disconnect between what Google is (the 800 pound gorilla that can roll out a new product like an appliance manufacturer can roll out a new toaster), and how Google sees itself (the brave disruptive startup launching something cool in private beta). It's the same disconnect that we know from Microsoft, that couldn't see itself as the monopolist they were, because their self-image was still that of the little startup that took on the mighty IBM. Of course it could all just be marketing, like every word out of Google these days is just marketing without substance. Either way, Google doesn't listen to user feedback and is perfectly capable of rolling out a new product on a global scale. "Request an invite" is BS.
- smokinjoe 13y ago> It's the disconnect between what Google is (the 800 pound gorilla that can roll out a new product like an appliance manufacturer can roll out a new toaster), and how Google sees itself (the brave disruptive startup launching something cool in private beta). How do you know this? I find this Request a clever way to stagger the release of the update. In case there happens to be any issues then only those who volunteered for the update would be affected, hopefully resulting in slightly higher patience.
- moystard 13y agoYou sound very biased against Google. In that particular case, I think the new Maps is not ready for prime launch yet. I think two things tend to prove that this is the truth: no Google Maps API are available for this new Maps, the presenter (forgot his name) mentioned that they were not ready for prime time; also for other products announced today, they rolled them out right away (new Google+, new Google Music, etc.) so why would they not release this one?
- untog 13y agoand how Google sees itself (the brave disruptive startup launching something cool in private beta). What? Since when has launching a product to a small audience and gathering feedback been something that only a startup is allowed to do?
- ok_craig 13y ago
- maxbaroi 13y agoThe first person to comment sets the narrative.
- bobsoap 13y agoA.k.a. "The above-the-fold syndrome"
- duaneb 13y agoSeems like a smart decision to me. I probably wouldn't have cared about GMail if thirteen year old me didn't want an invite more than anything. Anyway, it's still a gradual rollout, just with hype. Seems like a smart decision to me if they don't overuse the gimmick.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- coldtea 13y ago>I probably wouldn't have cared about GMail if thirteen year old me didn't want an invite more than anything. A 13 year old wanted "more than anything" a ...Gmail invite of all things?
- bowmessage 13y agoSpeaking as someone who was also 13 around the time GMail was doing their invite thing, yes. I coveted that thing. I listened to TWiT with Leo Laporte and heard them talk and talk about it, and scoured web forums looking for one. It's not that weird really.
- kbenson 13y agoI think coldtea was implying that there's something else that 13 year old boys (assumption from GP name) generally want more than anything, and it's generally a bit more physical than Gmail invites.
- coldtea 13y agoNot to mention they don't listen to ..."TWiT with Leo Laporte "!
- bowmessage 13y agoMan I loved that podcast for some reason. I was a weird kid.
- MatthewPhillips 13y agoNo, they don't want to open this up to everyone until they can confirm that ad revenue is unaffected by the changes.
- kailuowang 13y agoThat's a very good strategy - testing new features by controlled rollout so that their potential revenue impact can be fully analyzed. Every company that lives on profit should adopt that strategy. Thanks for point it out.
- MatthewPhillips 13y agoIt's the reason we still have the Google Black Bar when they highly publicized a new navigation last year. It hurt traffic to their other properties.
- yeoman2 13y agoexactly, this has nothing to do with ability to rollout, rather marketing (create desire), test profitability (do users come back more often)
- JoeKM 13y agoInvite-only creates hype around your product. Google wants people to Tweet and post on Facebook: "I got an invite into the new Google Maps!". Simple marketing.
- azar1 13y agoOr even share on Google+ … on second thought, I'm sure even Google knows they'd be preaching to the choir there.
- brown9-2 13y agoI think this type of thing risks tiring people out though. There are only so many times people can get excited about getting an invite to a new service before it feels like chasing old highs.
- waterlesscloud 13y agoI clicked the link before looking at the comments. I saw "request an invite", sighed, and hit the back arrow. I'm tired of Google request-an-invites, and it was a reaction completely independent of the comments here (which I hadn't yet seen). Something to think about, I guess.
- 7952 13y agoThey even share the obsession with finding a place to eat in San Francisco.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- munificent 13y agoWould you want a billion new users all slamming your brand new codebase and infrastructure all at the exact same time? Sure Google can handle scale better than anyone, but a stampede is still a stampede. Soft launches are way safer and easier to manage.
- testbro 13y agoGoogle has been using A/B testing for quite some time I think; they even do it with Chrome nowadays. Wouldn't that work to manage load?
- raldi 13y agoYou mean instead of handing out N invites, just pick N users at random? Why would that be better? You confuse and potentially upset the randomly-chosen users, and you disappoint the eager people who actually want to try the new thing.
- r00fus 13y agoWhen google does first-come first served (Google I/O last year) they get dinged. When they do randomized (Nexus4 initial sale and this year's I/O) they get dinged. Fact is, they can't satisfy everyone. The algorithm used to differentiate the few from the many will obviously upset some groups. Would you rather they charge for it? That'd be the Microsoft thing to do [1]. [1] http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1011983/microsoft-to-charge-for-beta http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1011983/microsoft-t...
- eloisant 13y agoThe problem with Google I/O is that it was not actually first come first served, but random. As in: the registration site gets pound so hard that you need to be lucky to be able to load the page and proceed with your registration. Also, for Google I/O it would have served to have people apply, and review applications to pick real developers and not dumbass unable to read a line of code but hoping for a cool gadget to flip on ebay. Anyway, as much as I want to try the new map right away I would do the invite system like them: you get to ramp up your userbase progressively, and people trying it actually want to try it (not grandma opening Maps and being completely confused by the new UI and possible bugs).
- jonknee 13y agoIt could be worse, they did the same thing with Glass but then charged $1500 for the benefit of being chosen. That said, I think it makes sense. Ask Apple how it feels to make a drastic change with maps.
- cjfont 13y agoGlass is hardware, it's not like they're going to give it away for free.
- nazgulnarsil 13y agothey gave me a laptop for free.
- ereckers 13y agoThat was my first thought as well. Nope. Not going to go begging for a Google invite this time. I can see throttling your users to help test the product, but it's a Maps app for goodness sake. Maybe something other than "Invite" would be more palatable, like "Sign Up for Beta" for instance.
- ryanstewart 13y agoExactly. I don't need to see it rolled out at maps.google.com for the world to start using, but I'd at least like to be able to follow a link to TRY it after seeing it in the keynote.
- mcintyre1994 13y agoIt seems legitimate that they'd want to stagger the release of this. I think it's better for everybody that they do it in a way that those who want it, will use it and are interested get it first. Have you seen what the average user thinks when Facebook redesign things?
- dasil003 13y agoThis is echo chamber mentality. Why does request-an-invite imply little startup? It just happens to be a strategy startups regularly employee, but why is it only legitimate for startups? Your criticism is hard to parse any other way than that you don't like Google, so whatever they do you find an interpretation of how their behavior is disingenuous and annoying. How the wider consumer world will view this is an open question, but I very much doubt anyone but the tech 1% will even have this thought cross their mind.