Everyone and their mother is ranting and raving about Google+. I have a Facebook newsfeed of people begging to get on this new social network. Friends and colleagues of mine tried inviting me to no avail. Unfortunately the window to get on lasted less than a day. Now the system to get people on is completely shut down.
In my opinion, this was a terrible move by Google. Yes, you are getting a buzz and everyone wants to flock to your system. However, if you're setting up a social network and want people to use it, don't you think you should allow these invited people to get their friends on? I mean after all, how many contacts could you possibly have out of the limited number of profiles that's allowed to exist on the site?
I understand that they want to test a small segment. However, isn't the point of testing a website, especially a social media website to see how it will perform? I'm pretty sure heavy traffic is a great way to test new system. Nonetheless, if you want people to adopt something, especially early, you should make it available to a lot of people. Generally, the people receiving these invites are probably related to the industry the inviter is in. You would want to get a full spectrum of input, not just from a few select people.
In conclusion, I believe this is hurting Google's effort to get this out. People might be buzzing about it now, but if they wait too long, there will definitely be something else being buzzed about. I also wonder how this is going to affect market share of social media sites like LinkedIn & Facebook. Perhaps allowing them to prepare for this new product will enable the existing social media to stay ahead of Google.