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G+ invite open again

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101–110 of 114 posts

Re: G+ invite open again

#101

Has anyone looked at the source html of the Google+ pages? Anyone have any clue what's going on there? Is this the output from some compiler (Which apparently is generating the css along with the html) or some obfuscation technique?

Compiler used to compress the size before it's actually compressed in transmission. No reason to send "here-is-the-table-id-we-want-for-the-form" when you can just send "t-f-4"---the browser obviously doesn't care.

Re: G+ invite open again

#102
post #90

Am I just old or is anyone else completely uninterested in Google+ ? Why is Google going to be any less evil than Facebook (or Twitter) ? Hasn't everyone read some of the infamous yet numerous quotes from Eric Schmidt (Google CEO, anti-privacy, unless it's his income/house data) ? This is any antagonistic law enforcement's wet dream - all cloud data is legally accessed without warrants or notification these days - he…

I am completely uninterested in Facebook, twitter and all that came before. And I am old.

But recently almost everyone around my age and younger has joined Facebook/twitter/etc. And I keep waiting for this to end, for people to become bored with it, but it seems the world is moving away from face to face and voice communication.

It seems everyone is moving to web based social interaction. I remember when only the biggest geeks at my university preferred on-line chat over face to face interaction. But that time, our old timer's time, seems to be passing. And social networking is now how people keep in touch, how they maintain a key element of their social sphere.

And I've noticed it when even friends my age have organized things on facebook and then apologized to me since because I'm not on facebook, they briefly forgot I exist.

Or I'd like to believe them, that's what really happened ;)

I'm in no rush to join G+ (I keep typing "++"!) And if/when I do, I'll probably keep my circles very tight. But speaking as an old guy, the more time goes by the more I accept the reality that social networking is becoming part of our culture, just like the telephone once did.

But I could do with a bit fewer news items about G+ per day.

P.S.

(I also get a lot of crap from my friends for not carrying a cell phone.)

Re: G+ invite open again

#104
post #40
post #37

I'm curious, what's with the cruddy URLs? For eg: https://plus.google.com/113882113745075873153 Why the gargantuan number? Yeah, it's in trial, but still..

It's a strange irony that Google, the driving force behind the invention of SEO, often fail to bother with it themselves, even on extremely high-profile products. As noted, Google Profiles have meaningless, unguessable URLs: https://plus.google.com/112349855959838705650 Items in the Chrome app store are similarly opaque: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/aidgmjkfmbhldhnhko... (As are all Chrome extensions:) h…

It's like google wants to remind you what search was like prior to their participation. Webmaster forums are particularly funny example of this style of design which is almost aggressively search-unfriendly.

Re: G+ invite open again

#105

Has anyone looked at the source html of the Google+ pages? Anyone have any clue what's going on there? Is this the output from some compiler (Which apparently is generating the css along with the html) or some obfuscation technique?

I'd assume that they are using http://code.google.com/closure/compiler/ on their JavaScript.

Re: G+ invite open again

#106
post #96
post #67

Might just be me, but with Google opening and closing invitations like this all the time, it's not even "like Gmail all over again". It's much worse. With Google creating this much artificial scarcity to bring buzz, demand and publicity, they are really creating immense expectations and putting themselves up for slaughter. People are going crazy right now trying to get invites, to find the invites closed, their recei…

> With Google creating this much artificial scarcity to bring buzz Oh dear God do I get sick of hearing complaints about the "illusion of scarcity" every time somebody can't get something obviously in demand. Do you have any idea how many moving parts there are to something like this? The only message I get from your post is that you can't separate your opinion from reality (like so many others).

I don't believe Google are limiting supply to create buzz, but I do believe they are focusing too much on making sure everyone who gets in has a perfect experience in terms of responsiveness and lack of bugs.

Twitter is living proof that if your service is compelling enough people will put up with a LOT of unreliability (and in the context of a network like Twitter, FB, or G+, compelling means 'are there many people I personally want to interact with it on the service'). Will they also put up with a brick wall keeping them and/or their friends and family out (regardless of why it exists)? Will they tolerate the extremely confusing UX (even from a techie's perspective) that goes along with trying to scale that wall? I guess with Google+ we will find out one way or the other.

My main beef with Google+ isn't even that it is limited right now (though that does suck for a 'social network') but rather that the invite system doesn't make any kind of rational sense and the funky way it works isn't properly communicated to users at all.

Re: G+ invite open again

#107
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With Google creating this much artificial scarcity to bring buzz Oh dear God do I get sick of hearing complaints about the "illusion of scarcity" every time somebody can't get something obviously in demand. Do you have any idea how many moving parts there are to something like this? The only message I get from your post is that you can't separate your opinion from reality (like so many others).

I don't believe Google are limiting supply to create buzz, but I do believe they are focusing too much on making sure everyone who gets in has a perfect experience in terms of responsiveness and lack of bugs. Twitter is living proof that if your service is compelling enough people will put up with a LOT of unreliability (and in the context of a network like Twitter, FB, or G+, compelling means 'are there many people…

Counter-examples are how broken Friendster was, and how even MySpace would crawl. Facebook has always been snappy.

Re: G+ invite open again

#108
post #67

Might just be me, but with Google opening and closing invitations like this all the time, it's not even "like Gmail all over again". It's much worse. With Google creating this much artificial scarcity to bring buzz, demand and publicity, they are really creating immense expectations and putting themselves up for slaughter. People are going crazy right now trying to get invites, to find the invites closed, their recei…

I can't help but feel like they really want this to succeed, and are betting the entire company on it. From what I've heard, Google+ has to potential to turn out huge. And making sure there aren't any bugs before letting everybody in is simply a must for them - They just can't afford to have any problems with this last attempt at social. I also think the hype you're talking about only happens in a very small group of…

The problem is Google is at a bit of a disadvantage vs Facebook. Facebook taught us exclusivity is a good thing but by expanding to entire schools at a time they were able to guarantee new users had other in-network friends with Facebook available to them. With + users are relying on people they know to be available to keep the product interesting... A bunch of random people trickling in doesn't necessarily translate to a positive user experience.

Re: G+ invite open again

#109
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Andrew, give it a try - as I said, really easy to setup. I am thinking of installing it on one of my customers' LAN for their private use.

Yep, it's pretty great. We use it internally and it's pretty fantastic. Curious what XMPP platform you all went with, this was the most difficult part to implement for us and was a little tedious waiting for the CAs to accept the certificates and have it all propagate and everything. We're using Prosody which does have its quirks but maybe there's something better out there.

Can't speak to interoperation with WiaB, but I've always been very pleased with ejabberd. Surprisingly simple to set up and administer, pretty much hands off once it's up.

Re: G+ invite open again

#110
post #96
post #67

Might just be me, but with Google opening and closing invitations like this all the time, it's not even "like Gmail all over again". It's much worse. With Google creating this much artificial scarcity to bring buzz, demand and publicity, they are really creating immense expectations and putting themselves up for slaughter. People are going crazy right now trying to get invites, to find the invites closed, their recei…

> With Google creating this much artificial scarcity to bring buzz Oh dear God do I get sick of hearing complaints about the "illusion of scarcity" every time somebody can't get something obviously in demand. Do you have any idea how many moving parts there are to something like this? The only message I get from your post is that you can't separate your opinion from reality (like so many others).

I believe Google have honest reasons to limit invites right now. That's understandable.

From a public relations POV though it's very poorly handled. A better, fairer way would be to give each new member 1 or 2 invites, not hundreds or thousands, and ensure those invites work. I've sent invites out to friends and family a week ago and none are working, so they shrug and go back to Facebook - G+ has become last week's wonder.

Most annoying is the continual "invites open now!" posts popping up here and there - and you know that they won't work for you.

Technical issues or not Google could have and should have had a fair and transparent invite system in place.

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