Google Wave Invites Pouring

In my previous article I had mentioned me receiving invitation from Google for my Wave account on 30th October 2009. While I was expecting Google to send out next round of invites towards end of November 2009, they have proved me wrong. It seems they have sent another round of invites on 14th November 2009. Though this could be a part of delayed invitation process they started on 30th October 2009, what seems to be a coincidence is 2 of my friends ended up receiving their invitations yesterday.

This surely is a positive step coz most of the Google Wave account holders have been complaining about limited contacts in their Wave account thereby limiting their usage of Google Wave and at the same time many experts felt that Wave was loosing its fizz. Maybe its time Google went aggressive and offered invites to many more people.

Happy Waving!

More Google Wave invites.

As pointed out in one of my earlier posts, since the launch of Google Wave on 30th September 2009, Google has sent another round of Wave invites.

I was lucky enough to receive my own Wave invite from Google yesterday. This is exactly the same modus operandi which we had witnessed when Gmail was launched. In the coming year or so there is a high possibility that at least 50-55 percent of Gmail users will have their own Wave account.

Gmail has about 150 million users worldwide and with 20 additional Google Wave invites allowed per account, it wont take much time for Google to get their entire Gmail users to move to Wave. But lets not get too excited coz these invites will be sent by Google in a phased manner. There are also talks of Google replenishing invites of existing Wave users who have exhausted their earlier quota of invites.

One of the most notable things seen in the image above is 20 permissible invites which is up from 8 permissible invites at the time of launch. Also, for those who may not know email id for wave accounts are xyz@googlewave.com

Happy waving!

More Google Wave invitations expected before 31st October 2009?

Lets first try and understand how Gmail invitations evolved over the years.

Gmail
Gmail was a project started by Google developer Paul Buchheit several years before it was announced to the public. Initially the software was available only internally as an email client for Google employees.

The project initially was known by the code name Caribou, a reference to a Dilbert comic strip about Project Caribou.

For Gmail, Google started a unique way to offer access to public viz. through invites. To cut down on spam in the early days, Google used viral marketing by allowing only existing users to invite new users.

* On 21st March 2004 Google invited about 1,000 employees, friends, and family members to become beta testers.
* On 25th April 2004 active users from the Blogger.com community were offered the chance to participate in the beta-testing.
* On 1st May 2004 one round of invitations was sent out to all active users which they could extend to their friends.
* On 1st June 2004 another three invitations were given to all active members.
* By mid-June 2004, the number of invitations had increased, with many users receiving between three and five daily.
* On 2nd February 2005 the invitation interface was changed to make it easier to give invitations by simply entering an e-mail address.
* On 3rd February 2005 some Gmail users were awarded 50 invitations and later it was increased to 100 invitations
* On 7th February 2007 - It was made public and anyone could vist gmail.com and register for their Gmail account without the need for any invite.

Google Wave
Google Wave is "a personal communication and collaboration tool" announced by Google at the Google I/O conference on May 27, 2009.

* On 28th May 2009 started allowing developers to send requests for sandbox account.
* By July 2009 Google Wave had over 6000 sandbox account.
* On 30th September 2009 Google Wave was extended to about 100,000 users. Each of these users can invite 8 more users which takes the total strength to about 800,000 users. However, these users who do not have a direct invite from Google will not be able to invite anyone else.

Now if we try and draw a parallel between Gmail and Wave invites, its quite probable that before end of October 2009 Google may grant additional invites to all the existing 800,000 users of Wave and such grants may be given every month.