?

[shabs]

Step 1 in making a social network:
Don't let people join your social network.

Comments

[vinas]

It's genius marketing and it recalls how they introduced gmail. Instead of signing up and finding out it's not substantively different or better than other services, people will be fed a slow drip of hype and have to word-of-mouth their friends into getting an invite.

[shabs]

*shrugs* Typically the word of mouth about Google Products is from technical people, but social networks are lifestyles products.

Barriers to entry for wide use products, however small, can be inpenetrable. I've almost entirely lost interest already because I can't get in.

It's the same reason I standardized on Hotmail. I had to play an active role in getting a Gmail account and I standardized on Hotmail in the meantime.

To be fair they didn't have much success without this type of marketing though because Google Buzz exists but nobody cares about that.