Google Now Lets Those In Google+ Offically Invite Others
Already in Google+ and want to let others in? Google's now allowing this. — Just look to the bottom of the right-hand side of your stream. You should see an invite icon, like this: — Select that, and you can invite anyone you like!
Context & Ripple Effects
Google+ opened its doors to a limited user base just one day earlier, on June 28, and this move converts those first users into the distribution channel: an invite icon at the bottom of the stream lets any member bring others in. It repeats a playbook Google has run before — invite-a-friend onboarding for Google Voice in 2009 — where scarcity itself did the marketing.
Pickup of the story was quick but thin (Search Engine Land plus Smarterware and a note from Mathew Ingram), and the most telling detail came from Google's own social lead: Vic Gundotra said the invite system had to be shut down for a while because of what he called insane demand — meaning the tap was turned back off almost as soon as it opened.
First-order effects
- Every existing Google+ member can now pull new users in from their stream, shifting user acquisition from Google's own channels onto its earliest adopters.
- Demand immediately outpaced capacity — Gundotra suspended the invite system shortly after enabling it, so many would-be inviters hit a closed door within hours.
Second-order effects
- Suspended invites turn access into currency: early members hold scarce invitations, which concentrates attention and buzz around whoever is already inside rather than around the product's features.
- Rival networks face a competitor whose growth is being throttled deliberately — if Google sustains the invite-gated rollout instead of opening signups, Facebook and Twitter get a grace period before Google+ reaches general availability.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Google's product launches will keep using artificial scarcity as standard go-to-market infrastructure — invite waves seeding social graphs through trusted connections rather than open registration, exactly as Voice did in 2009.
The trend: Google is treating invite scarcity as a deliberate launch mechanism for social products, repeating the Google Voice playbook at network scale.