Wallop of invite only offers |
Loading ...Tejas is trying out a new service by invite only called Wallop. Tejas is in an interesting fellow who writes often about web technology and Microsoft. I looked in the comments on his Wallop entry and see users requesting invites. I’d like to comment on this whole invite-only method of including or excluding users and I’m sure it’s going to sound like sour grapes for somebody who hasn’t received an invite to Wallop yet (whatever). Yeah, yeah, I know it’s only a limited test period, or beta testing and don’t I understand how important this is? Sure I do, I’m a programmer myself. The point is that these people don’t have to put up public release signup forms only to tease people, collect email addresses and cause a stir over getting a coveted invitation like it’s the golden ticket in Willy Wonka’s chocolate bar.
Gmail has long since passed the testing for users phase though and they should just open it up to everybody. It seems like the only people left interested in Gmail invites are the people who spam blogs with gmail invite keywords in Google. And my guess is many of these people just want to use the accounts to spam others.
This only allow users by invite stuff by invite stuff blows … it was an interesting marketing technique when it first appeared, but these days it’s turning this user off (more than on) to web services that do this. All it ends up doing is making people have to beg for invites from the people who have them and the people who have them have to ration out the invites they have. People don’t “feel exclusive” like some are claiming with this not-so-brilliant marketing scheme, they just feel left out and bad.
I think the icing on the cake is when this guy stops by my blog to “invite me” to sign up for his program recently and after doing so I get email saying that “IF I’m accepted into his beta testing” I’ll be in. I ask him about it, questioning if it’s spam and he admits that the product is not even done yet.
Wonderful.
- A couple Gmail invites left - Make Me Laugh Contest
- More Google evil?
- Thanks Google for introducing and popularizing invite-only elitism
- Google testing free email service: Gmail
- Beta invite signees beware
- Gmail spam filter sucks too, 3 GB of spam in less than 6 months
This isn’t a marketing technique. It’s a way to limit growth. Google’s Chris Uhlik, who runs the Gmail group, told me that.
They can’t just turn everyone on all at once. It’d ruin the experience for who is already on the servers.
Comment by Robert Scoble — November 6, 2004 @ 3:35 am PST
i like to have one wallop invitation, can u send me one please??? tks
Comment by TaoOo — January 30, 2005 @ 12:27 pm PST
TaoOo - sorry, I do not have any Wallop invites to offer. If you want an invite then visit the Wallop site and go through the procedure there. If I get the ability to give out some Wallop invites then I will post about it in a new thread. Don’t have any now, though. Therefore, any future requests in this thread for Wallop invites will be removed so please don’t bother.
Comment by TDavid — January 30, 2005 @ 12:37 pm PST
[…] should shut up and quit being a baby about this. Scoble, are you still blindly believing this isn’t a complete setup and that bloggers aren’t being used as marketing shills? Sure […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » Thanks Google for introducing and popularizing invite-only elitism — March 30, 2005 @ 10:37 am PST
Web 2.0: Yahoo!360 vs. Imeem
I’ve been using two different services that fall in to a category I will describe as the Web 2.0 Swiss Army Knife. My previous post describes what I feel Web 2.0 is. The Swiss Army knife is the idea that…
Trackback by Johnnie Manzari — April 4, 2005 @ 1:36 am PST
I am interested in Wallop and hope it could be used to do something coordinated. Could you please send me a invitation? I will appricate your deed of kindness.
Thanks.
Comment by Taslim Arif — November 9, 2005 @ 1:20 pm PST