Thanks Google for introducing and popularizing invite-only elitism |
Loading ...We have Google to thank for things like this. Yeah, disclaimer this, I’m in the list of beggers, along with other bloggers. Heck, even Dave Winer was over there begging for a Yahoo 360 invite yesterday (and got one)! Just who actually was in the Yahoo inner circle anyway that wasn’t a Yahoo employee or a friend of a Yahoo employee and that actually got sent invites?
It’s not Yahoo’s fault, really, they are just copying Google who pulled this with Gmail and the dead zone that is Orkut. We can blame these whole elitism marketing tactics on Google. I refuse to believe any of this is about limited beta testing any more, it’s all about PR. Maybe the PR guys should be blamed for this annoying, condescending marketing stunt. Yup, amazing coincidence that Steve Rubel was one of the The Invited.
I talked to several other people yesterday, none of which received invites. They all asked me if I got one, to please send one their way. Did we mention that if we wanted to be street beggers we’d break out a pen and cardboard box and work the nearest corner?
All this smokescreen beta stuff is doing is pissing off and alienating the people who weren’t invited and making those small few who were become the marketing arms for the mega corporations and therefore promoting elitism. I can’t be the only one who sees it this way, but I bet I’ll get idiotic comments saying that I 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, The Powers That Be will tell folks that it’s because they want to tweak their servers and “make the program better” and get limited feedback from a “respected audience.” Please, I have beachfront property in Arizona for sale too!
If they really wanted to be quiet about things then they’d do something like what Microsoft does with their private betas: invite people and focus groups into test with detailed NDAs. Clearly to me, this is all about getting the word out. It’s free marketing. A free exploitation of the blogosphere and I just feel dirty and used even writing stuff like this. Did I link up 360? No. Why not? Because you’ll just go on a long waiting list that may or may not ever get filled.
Want to know something ironic? To this day I do not show ever receiving the original Gmail invite I originally signed up for through their website in April 2004. Has anybody else? No, please don’t send me one, because I received an invite shortly thereafter, just the way many others did: by begging from someone else who had one. That’s the game, people. It’s the bottom of the ninth, down by three runs, and the bases are loaded. No steroids needed to hit this one out of the park.
Since I don’t like being used or being a sheep, so if/when I ever do get a Yahoo 360 invite, I’m not even going to bother reviewing it here or becoming a “please invite me, please, please, please” breeding ground like what’s already happening on other blogs and exactly what happened with Gmail, Orkut and other clones of this insulting new trend.
Readers might be surprised, but I’m not mad at Yahoo with this. Heck, they are just following the lead taken from The Leader AKA Google. If I had more time I’d scan the blogosphere for what I know are many others annoyed by this growing invite-only trend. From what I’ve seen looking around other Yahoo 360 bloggers site though it seems to be mostly an imitation of MSN Spaces, which I’m currently bored with anyway.
Thank you Google for creating the world’s most useful search engine and now for fostering a new trend in elitism beta testing. As a stockholder and user I’m absolutely proud of you.
Not.
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[…] ped up portal with large Gmail like email offering??? TDavid is pretty hot about it…Make You Go Hmm: ยป Thanks Google for introducing and popularizing invite-only elitism I was fortunat […]
Pingback by Blog-A-Rama » Blog Archive » Yahoo 360 - so what? — March 30, 2005 @ 11:41 am PST
I blogged about the same thing last night. This didn’t come across as a beta test to keep the amount of users down. It reeked of veiled marketing, fake hype, and exclusivity.
link
Comment by seni — March 30, 2005 @ 1:16 pm PST
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I knew there had to be others seeing this phony trend develop. As a software developer (among other things), I do understand the importance and value of *true* beta testing to deliver/ship a great non-buggy product, and I don’t want to demean the importance of this testing and debugging process, But enough already of prematurely getting the marketing types involved (it’s becoming very obvious as you noted) before a product is. Even. Done!
It’s going to make it so nobody cares any more about finishing software and/or believes that there is really such a thing as true beta testing of software. Did Flickr ever even leave beta before Yahoo bought them? Nope, they are still in beta. I guess we can thank Google with their infamous perpetual betas for this trend as well.
Comment by TDavid — March 30, 2005 @ 2:12 pm PST
You hit the nail right on the head. They are definitely not doing it because they’re worried about the load on their servers. They’re not worried about over extending themselves. They’re trying to artificially create buzz about their product. The funniest thing about the situation is that after having used 360, it seems as though it isn’t really appropriate for the early adopters out there! It’s mainly targeted to people who are new to blogging and the like. It’s for people who use my.yahoo.com as their home page. And what group of people does the ‘invite only beta’ scheme target? Early adopters, tech savvy people, geeks. Makes no sense at all.
Anyway, if you want an invite, you have my email. I’d just send it to you but I can’t find your email anywhere on the site!
Comment by Steve Dembo — March 30, 2005 @ 11:38 pm PST
[…] another of our websites. I also own some Google stock. None of this means I won’t be extremely critical of Google if I don’t like something they are doing as readers have seen time […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » Disclosing conflicts, business interests and copyright — April 1, 2005 @ 11:29 am PST
I just started a site that helps people get and trade Yahoo 360 Invites. Give it a try and spread the word if you can:
http://www.360invites.com
Comment by Alex — April 1, 2005 @ 1:40 pm PST
I actually did get that one invite for signing up at the GMail website. Well, about a month ago it was in my Hotmail Inbox. By then, of course, I was already the owner of my own 5 gazillion invites.
Comment by gibarian — April 2, 2005 @ 12:57 pm PST
Unvitation marketing
Unvitation marketing: I’ve decided, when it comes to all new web services that launch using the “faux-viral-by-invitation-only” gimmick, I am doing the Groucho Marx .
Trackback by rexblog — April 2, 2005 @ 3:08 pm PST
[…] lems with DRM. They have latched onto to the invite-only marketing method, however, unlike other invite-only schemes they actually do fulfill invites if you sign up on the PI website otherwise […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » Webtalk radio wonders if P2P networks will go legal — April 12, 2005 @ 9:58 am PST
Reviewing the Yahoo 360 launch, after the fact (from: Scripting News)
http://archive.scripting.com/2005/04/02#reviewingTheYahoo360LaunchAfterTheFactThe launch of Yahoo 360 seems so long ago, but it was just six days. How did it go? This screed nails it. Invite-only, exclusive, two-tier marketing of beta services, a tradi…
Trackback by elizabeth grigg link blog — May 8, 2005 @ 10:56 am PST
[…] one of our blogs in place of Adsense. Update 8/3/05: They have launched, but it’s [arggg] available on an invite-only basis.
[…]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » Yahoo ad network launching — August 3, 2005 @ 12:55 pm PST
[…] These beta invite schemes are really becoming sleazy. They had already encouraged and promoted elitism, but now they are sinking to an even deeper low: marketing without advance disclosure to people who signed up for beta invites. […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » Beta invite signees beware — July 14, 2006 @ 10:28 am PST
[…] Not sure when Joost will offer a public beta, but their best move would be waiting as long as it takes to polish and perfect the software, not changing names and perpetuating the clubbiness of an invite only with NDA marketing strategy. Related PostsSkype automatic contact syncing in version 1.2 betaSkype public APISkype to go to release status in summer with SkypeOut paid service […]
Pingback by Jousting Joost » Make You Go Hmm — January 16, 2007 @ 11:58 am PST
[…] this to better deal with the invite situation, which I still believe is a scheme in and of itself, no thanks to Google and others. Related PostsWallop of invite only offersPlaying for up to $10 million dollars in […]
Pingback by InviteShare a pump and dump site scheme or worthwhile service? » Make You Go Hmm — July 13, 2007 @ 12:47 pm PST