Google+

[Paper Shredder Clay]

Does anyone else here have Google+. I haven't been able to invite anyone since I created my account. What good is a social network if you can't invite? I know it is a closed field group, but still let me invite a couple of people.

Sorry, I needed to vent. This is always Google's problem. It was that way with Google Wave and Google Voice.

[vangogh]

No account yet. I started another thread about Google+ last week when it was announced. I'm not sure how big a deal invites are at the moment. Google has opened Plus to the general public on and off the last few days. When I visit the site now I see a button to sign in with my Google account. Word is Google wanted to keep this small at first to get rid of as many bugs as possible early on and also to keep things from scaling too fast.

I'm sure they want to open it up to everyone sooner rather than later and are temporarily keeping things more closed until they're sure their servers can handle it. I'm guessing it won't be long till either it's open to everyone or the invites are more readily available.
a
The slow rollout was something that worked well with Gmail. It helped create a lot of buzz and desire for a Gmail account. It also let them iron out major problems before letting everyone in. Last year when they rolled out Buzz they did the opposite and more everyone complained. I think because of their success with slow rollouts and the immediate failure with the product that was release in opposite fashion they figured it was safer to go back to the slower rollout.

[Paper Shredder Clay]

I finally was able to start inviting a few last night. It works for some and not for all. I understand they need to take it slow, but they should be able to allow each person to invite one person or two; otherwise how can you test it?

[vangogh]

They originally were letting people invite others, but I think the site grew faster than they expected the first few days and so they needed to turn the invites off temporarily to ensure the whole system stayed up and running. That's why it's now working on and off. Once they've ensure the system can handle more users they let people in. As they fill to capacity they shut down. I would think it won't be too long before Google+ is simply open to anyone who wants to join.

I know it's no fun waiting, but all you can do at this point is send out invites when you can and be patient as Google works out the bugs.

I'm with you though about it being frustrating. You'd think a company with the resources of Google could have a better idea of what demand would be and do a better job of being prepared. In their defense it does take a lot to make sure an application can grow in scale to the size it will need to be to accommodate everyone. From a technical standpoint it probably makes more sense to have people wait a few days or a week to get in if it means everyone who's already a member is on a working system.

[greenoak]

it seems kind of against the grain....the coommon idea in say the resturant world or most retail... is ....dont open till its great....first impressions mean a lot....

[vangogh]

First impressions have been good though. That's why people want in. To build a system capable of handling millions of users costs a lot of money. It's silly to spend all that money until you have some idea you might need to support millions of users. You also don't notice many things that aren't working until after the system has grow past a certain point. It's an issue of scale.

Using a restaurant as an example it's starting a chain of 100 restaurants to start instead of opening one and growing from there. You wouldn't invest in 100 restaurants before being successful with the first one.

What Google is trying to do is open up their system to enough people so they can work out all the bugs and ensure that the system gets positive reviews. Once they know they can handle the demand they'll open things up so more people can sign up.

[Itsme]

How many of you are ACTIVELY using Google+?
And what are you mainly using it for?

Just curious!!!

[vangogh]

I haven't been very active the last few weeks, but I was actively using Google+ in the weeks prior. When I get busy social media is often the first thing to get cut.

Whenever I come across content I like and want to share I look for a +1 button and if there I'll submit the content to Google+ If I really like the content and there's no +1 button I'll still often submit it. Each time I visited G+ I checked through each of my circles and scanned down the page. Whenever I had something to say I replied. Here and there some back and forth would ensue.

I use Google+ pretty much how you use any social network. I shred things and engaged in conversation with people. One thing Google+ has done is get me to fill out my Google profile a little bit more and also use some other Google properties. For example I've been spending more time with YouTube since joining Google+ I now like and favorite things instead of just watching videos.

Just a note, but last report I saw Google+ up to 50 million members.

[KristineS]

I'm not active at all. I know I should spend more time there, but I tend to go where the majority of our following is right now, which is Twitter and Facebook. I also know that if I spent more time on Google+ I'd probably have more of a following, so it's kind of a chicken or the egg thing.

[MostHeather]

I'm with Kristine on this one. I've used Google + here and there, but the idea of building up another social networking website sounds too time consuming. Facebook is still ahead in my book..