Critics who claimed Google+, the new rival to Facebook, was doomed have been left with egg on their faces after the test site has been forced to stop taking new users following what the company called “insane demand”.
Vic Gundotra, a senior vice president of social for Google, has confirmed the move, posting on the site: “We’ve shut down invite mechanism for now. Insane demand. We need to do this carefully, and in a controlled way. Thank you all for your interest!”
The shutdown means people can’t invite anyone else to join Google+, and even people who already had been invited onto the network can’t get in. “Already invited? We’ve temporarily exceeded our capacity. Please try again soon,” was the message one would-be user received.
A Google spokeswoman said she didn’t have any information on how many people have signed up to use Google+ or how many invitations have been sent out. She did say that the invitation process will be opened and closed periodically as the company works on getting the network ready for its big public release.
“We launched Google+ in a field trial in order to test the product out and gather more feedback,” the spokeswoman wrote. “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.”
She added that the goal of the field trial is see exactly how Google+ works outside of the company’s own walls. And Google also is looking for user feedback and time to fix any bugs they may find. The spokeswoman did not offer details on what bugs may have been found, and she could not say when Google+ will be released publicly.
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