Google+ Opens the Invite Flood Gates

If you were already on Google+ and wanted to invite friends and family, the invite system was limited. Yesterday, Google quietly started rolling out more invitations, with a twist.

When I checked my Google+ stream yesterday, I noticed that I had 150 invites to pass out to friends.

After clicking the Invite friends button, you can still invite an indefinite number of friends to Google+ (this hasn’t changed). But now Google is also providing a link for you to share, with a limitation of 150 invites. You can post the link in email, on forums, on websites -- even on Facebook.

It will be interesting to see how Facebook responds.

Share could be an interesting accelerator. I'm guessing Google would love for people to post this link on their Facebook Wall asking all of their friends to come over to Google+.

After digging into this story further, I found an update from Google engineer Balaji Srinivasan, who explained the details regarding the new invite system (see video below).

According to Balaji, this latest update was implemented in response to user feedback. Apparently users wanted an easier way to invite their friends to the service – more specifically friends whom they didn't have an email address for.

Things are definitely heating as Google+ continues to grow. This latest update to the service is an obvious sign that Google is ready for the next wave of users into its social service and is actively exploring ways to get new defectors from its primary rival.

Based in Seattle, Steve is a founding senior contributor at BYTE. Follow him @krausesteve and email him at Steve.Krause@BYTE.com.