We are seeing the same pattern as when Google launched Google Wave: people begging, screaming almost for an invite. The invites seemed to have been put out there randomly, even though Google says the original invites were very carefully picked, based on country, language and other distinctions.
Ever since the first invites went out things went crazy. So crazy that Google decided to shut down the invites for the night, because of “Insane Demand”.
On his Google+ Google Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra announced:
“We’ve shut down invite mechanism for the night. Insane demand. We need to do this carefully, and in a controlled way. Thank you all for your interest!”
In an e-mail Google states:
“We launched Google+ in a Field Trial in order to test the product out and gather more feedback… As part of the Field Trial, we may open and close Google+ to new users at any time. We’re thrilled so many people are interested in trying out a new approach to online sharing.”
It is clear the demand is high. But that was to be expected. See you on Google+ tomorrow maybe?
