We all know Google has one of, if not 'the', biggest online advertising networks with adsense/adwords. However, they also have the biggest word of mouth network online too. My initital reaction to this 'orkut/gmail invite only thing' was disdain. As a result, I've offered to invite anyone to orkut (still will) and I tried to set up a scheme so everyone who wanted one, could get a gmail account (no dice on that).
I have grown to respect 'the invite only' tactic as pure genius from a marketing perspective. And given the amount of interest in anything google does, it is smart to have limited launches, so they can make changes after initial feedback.
If you doubt the amount of demand for anything google does, here is a snapshot of the orkut/gmail invitation requests I've received. And google didn't have to do anything to get it.
Word of Mouth is their true advertising network. How do they bottle that and sell it? As a marketer, I say, "Forget that adsense parfum, I want some of that word of mouth cologne."
Update: I figured I'd add the waypath buzz maker graph to show the number of times the weblog world has mentioned google vs other big names. It dwarfs Microsoft by more than 2:1.
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