Google Opens Door to Google+ Invites, Will Close Again Soon

Posted 07/07/2011 at 10:19am | by Paul Lilly

7

Comments

Print

Google+ invites are hotter than a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket right now, and even if you have one, it's still tough to get through Google+'s doors. If you do happen to be sitting on an invite, now's the time to try and check in as Google looks to double up its membership.

Beginning last night, Google opened up invites for its social networking service, but the door will only stay open "for a brief period." Google said its goal is to double its user base in the field trial, though the search company declined to reveal exactly what that number is. Whatever the number, some have accused Google of creating artificial demand by limiting members, but is that really the case?

"As Engineering Director of Google+, I wanted to take a moment to explain why we're growing the system slowly," Google's Dave Besbris said. "First, we want to make sure our infrastructure scales so the service remains fast and reliable. Second, we want to ensure that bugs are fixed while there are still a relatively few people in the field trial."

While invites are currently open, Besbris warns that Google will continue to throttle things, "so please don't mass invite folks as it won't work."

Are you a Google+ user? If so, what do you think of the service so far?