If, like me, you are a bit of a internet geek, then you too are probably desperate to get your hands on a Google+ invite. If you’re not an internet geek, you’re probably asking, “a Google what?“.
Last week Google launched Google+, their new Social Network a la Facebook, to just a select few. But Sign Up closed agin two days later, and now it seems that neither love nor money can get you in.
For the initial two days, those already signed up could invite others by “sharing” something, then adding their friend’s email address to the “Add more people” box below. The recipient would then recieve the shared content by email, with a red button inviting them to “Learn more about Google+” at the bottom. This button would take them to the Sign Up page.
But as of last Thursday, (30th June), no one has been alowed in. Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President at Google posted “We’ve shut down invite mechanism for the night. Insane demand. We need to do this carefully, and in a controlled way. Thank you all for your interest!”
Visitors to the Google+ Sign Up page are greeted with a message, “Already Invited? We’ve temporarily exceeded our capacity. Please try again soon.“, and a “Keep Me Posted” button to enter your email address for updates.
Various loopholes and workarounds sprung up. For a short period you could still sign up from a Safari mobile browser, using either an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Android phone, or from a Mac computer with Safari’s user agent set to mobile version.
Another loophole was to use Google’s Chrome browser, and install the Google Plus chrome app. Once installed, clicking on the Google+ icon in a new tab would take you to a functioning Sign Up page. But this and other loopholes have been plugged now, and as of time of writing, I was unable to find any way in. Let me know if you have better luck!
PS. 21-year-old singer / songwriter Taylor Swift obviously had more luck than me, she already has her Google+ profile setup, as does recording artist Soulja Boy and FaceBook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg!
