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September 30, 2009

A New Batch of Google Wave Invites


Google Wave is about to open to new users. Starting today, Google will send 100,000 invites to some of those who were eager to use an early version of the service. Google's blog lists three categories of users that will receive invites: Google Wave Sandbox users, those who signed up and offered to give feedback on Google Wave and some Google Apps users. When you receive an invitation to Google Wave, you'll be able to invite other people so you can use Google Wave together.

"Google received more than 1 million requests to participate in the preview, said Lars Rasmussen, engineering manager for Google Wave, and while it won't be able to accommodate all those requests on Wednesday it is at least ready to begin the next phase of the project," writes CNet.

Like Gmail's early version released in April 2004, Google Wave lacks many basic features: you can't remove someone from a wave, you can't configure permissions or write drafts. The interface is not very polished and some of the options are difficult to find, but it's important to keep in mind that Google Wave is just one of the ways to implement an open protocol. Gmail revolutionized email with an interface inspired by discussion boards: messages are grouped in conversations and it's easy to handle a large amount of messages. Google Wave wants to revolutionize real-time communication by extending a protocol mostly used for instant messaging, XMPP.

Combining email, instant messaging and wikis seems like a recipe for confusion, but Google Wave pioneers a new generation of web applications, where everything is instantaneous. As Google explains, each wave is a hosted conversation and users can edit the conversation in real-time.

77 comments:

  1. Now, if I'd received an invite I would say "Great!", but I didn't get an invite :-(

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  2. Most likely, Google didn't start to send the invitations.

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  3. Can someone clarify:
    Does Wave replace your email inbox? Does it on day one fully digest your gmail inbox?
    How does it work when sending an email/message to a non-wave user? Is this possible? How does it work when sending an email/message to a wave user on a non-google wave platform?

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  4. Google Wave is not compatible with the existing email services, it's just a new way to look at email. You don't send messages in Google Wave, instead you invite another Google Wave user to a collaborative document.

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  5. Google frustrates us now for more than 24 hours, not to mention the blurry month before...

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  6. => Reuven. check out the long but extremely interesting video on http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html#video if you did not yet do so. Your life will change :-)

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  7. Wow that video was almost as painful as the Microsoft video encouraging Windows 7 release parties. Ugh. I don't see it - most of my contacts are NOT going to be on Wave. Just not gonna happen...

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  8. It's not surprising Google are introducing Wave so cautiously. For this to work in a general release it has to be robust and, even with the months of sandbox development and testing, there's a long way to go. On top of that, Wave is so radically different from anything that's gone before, it's going to take time for developers and users to realize its full potential. I just hope there's the bandwidth to handle the realtime collab, something that ties in nicely with another of Google's mantras: make the web [i.e. the apps and browsers] more efficient.

    I'm hoping for an invite. If I don't get one, so be it. Wavr will come to us all in 2010.

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  9. I like this 7:55 video quite a bit more than Lars Rasmussen's hour-plus video. It shows the essential idea of Wave without bogging down in details not of interest to the non-developer.

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  10. So, Wave is not in any way backwards compatible with old e-mail. What was Google thinking on that one? For something like this to take hold, it has to be backwards compatible with existing tech. The vast, VAST majority of people don't like new things. They like things that they know. This is why IE 6.0 still has some 65% marketshare. For something like this to catch on, you need to work it in slowly. It needs to be shown to people who don't read tech blogs all day, and they need to see that this is what they are used to, only much better. And then even still, many people won't use it. And if just 10% of people in your office won't drop their archaic e-mail habit, then the whole thing implodes.

    Google should have done the opposite. Google should have turned it into a spamming system. Every update to a wave sends a new e-mail to all of the old people who don't use Wave. Then when they complain, they get introduced to the correct way to share information. It would still get their e-mail, and it would fix their spamming problem.

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  11. Cheers! Could you send me an invitation?
    You will make me so happy and I would be really grateful!
    I desire it since it was announced
    My mail is luca.rez at gmail.com
    Thanks in advance

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  12. Why am I an idiot? Because I can form a good critique? Let me ask you, Mark, why do you think IE 6 still has a 65% market share? Why do you think the vast, vast majority of companies are willing to pay $300+ per copy of Windows and then another $300+ per copy of Office, when perfectly good and compatible alternatives exist? It's because people hate new things.

    Don't be a jerk online.

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  13. One explanation is that this is NOT email. Unlike people not upgrading their browsers, they do however turn to new technologies, email isn't dead but wiki's have their place, as do forums. This is a bit of all those but done in a new way. It will take time for the basic net and business to move away from email to this (if ever), and I am not sure how that would work between independent business communication (I still have to send faxes for heaven sake) but within a group of co-workers, family and/or friends I can really see this taking off and being a new 'wave' of communication. Now that I have sold it, can I get an account/invite please? rexel99 'at' gmail.com

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  14. Please, who can be so kind to send a Wave invite this way? i just want one, if you need to send it to more people let me know 8 email addresses and i will send them all. Thanks in advance. killersilver [at] gmail DOT com

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  15. I'm holding out for backwards compatibility with email. There's no technical or interface reason it can't be done. If nothing else, I'm sure someone will write a robot or extension that does it. If not, it be a long, hard sell.

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  16. Or is that "gadget"? I'm still confused on that aspect.

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  17. @DallasMay, not sure I agree. Take the iPhone, new, shiny, backwards compatible with nothing when it came out. It turned out to be a huge sensation, and the public just learned a new paradigm in order to use it. As for $600 for Windows + Office, I think you vastly underestimate how usable that system is (that includes support BTW). I've used Linux + Open Office before and it's not as polished (that doesn't include support BTW). Google's Docs isn't even close to either, for that matter.

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  18. Or watch the abridged version of that long and rather cringeworthy video here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Itc4253kjhw

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  19. What is Google Wave? Is it supposed to be a new Blogging platform. Amazing that I am writing about technology only to be behind the latest technology pushes.

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  20. Taking the long view, as I think Google generally does, Wave may *eventually* replace email and IM (among other things).

    Wave is a potential game changer and a perfect example of "disruptive technology". Its open design and coherent architectural model mean it could appear as part of other sites; think Wikipedia, Digg, Facebook on Wave. From there, ubiquity is just a stone's throw away. It may also be used to enable new forms of media; imagine a blogger posting edits live via a wave, as the article is being written.

    One example I think we may see earlier on is the use of waves within Google Talk, replacing chat conversations. GTalk is essentially a subset of Wave's technology (XMPP based messaging + presence). From there, I also suspect a "universal inbox" type of integration is forthcoming from Google; we now have disparate Gmail, Voice and Wave inboxes, and if Talk started using waves, it wouldn't be clear whether chat logs (waves) should be kept in Gmail's inbox, or Wave's.

    Wave may prove to be to email/IM/blogging what the World Wide Web was to Gopher. At least, I suspect that is part of Google's grand vision with Wave.

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  21. signed up early but never got an invite? how come?

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  22. @K:

    Be patient, you'll get your invitation until the end of the week. If not, find a friend who got an invitation and ask him to use one of his 8 invitations.

    Here's the message you should receive from Google:

    " Thank you for signing up to give us early feedback on Google Wave. We're happy to give you access to Google Wave and are enlisting your help to improve the product.

    To accept your invitation, sign into Google Wave at the following link*:
    https://wave.google.com/wave/invite?a=pre&wtok=***&wsig=A***
    (If you do not have a Google account, you will be prompted to create one)

    Once you've signed in:

    * Check out the videos and example waves
    * Invite others to join you


    Happy waving!
    The Google Wave Team

    For help, please visit http://www.google.com/support/wave

    * This link will only work for one invitation to Google Wave, it cannot be shared!"

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  23. I'll delete all the comments that request invitations. If you've already requested an invitation when Google Wave launched, be patient and you'll receive an invitation this week.

    Use this spreadsheet to request an invitation or to send invites to other users. Delete email addresses after sending invitations.

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  24. Also, there was an implementation setup by another person, hosted on Google Code as well.
    This version is called PyGoWave
    http://code.google.com/p/pygowave-server/

    You can test it on here
    http://pygowave.net/

    Please remember that this is a very very early alpha.
    But it does show what you can do with the Wave idea, embedding gadgets all interactive by all users, whether it is a piano or google maps gadget.

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  25. Alex, has anyone told you lately that you're the greatest! I always look forward to reading your posts! Keep up the excellent work... Gotta run. There's a wave coming in that I don't want to miss!

    Okay, sorry. That was cheesy.

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  26. @Hyperslug,

    Google Wave is not the iPhone. They are completely different animals. The iPhone was backwards compatible with the two things that mattered, the web and e-mail. Mobile Safari blew away anything even remotely similar (do you remember what the 'web' was like on old WinMo phones back then?) The iPhone in '07 filled a huge hole. Think of it as like the jump from VHS to DVD. People loved DVDs and bought them up very quickly because there was an obvious advantage, and it still worked with your old TV. When HD-DVD and Blu-Ray came along, they haven't really offered much advantage over DVD. Yes they produce better picture and sound, but most people are satisfied with DVD quality. Add onto that the fact that the new players required a new television and that movies and players cost 100% more, then there is just not as much incentive to upgrade. Blu-Ray has largely bombed in the market. Google Wave has to be DVD, offer clear advantage and full backwards compatibility with existing tech.

    I do think the person who described its use in Wikipedia and weblogs might have a point. Wave might really start there, and then move into large scale personal communication. Once people start seeing what realtime collaboration looks like, they might be more comfortable with it. It's certainly great tech, I'm routing for them -and shamelessly asking for an invite: dallasmay2002 at yahoo dot com. We'll see how this plays out.

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  27. If you get an invite and can invite 8 ppl- do each of the 8 invites get to invite more ppl? Or does it stop there? I'd assume the latter, otherwise, I suspect within a shor time, the entire planet would have it.

    Thanks in advance.

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  28. @Lola:

    Unfortunately, you can only nominate 8 people for invitations, so the invitations aren't sent immediately. From what I heard, if you don't get an invitation from Google, you can't nominate other people for invitations.

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  29. Alex,

    You mention "cheaters" on the spreadsheet...did some of us get removed? How do I know if I got invited & deleted, or just deleted? =/

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  30. I didn't use the word "cheaters", someone else wrote it. The spreadsheet can be edited by anyone so it's your responsibility to use it wisely. There's a revision history that lets you revert changes.

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  31. thx for that spreadsheet. i hope someone will invite me because google didn't ;-)
    hope there will be a good app for my android phone, too.

    to the person who might probably invite me: thank you! :-D

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  32. It goes too slowly... Has Google really sent all 100,000 invitations?

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  33. Anyone know when the invites end?

    I signed up on day one, so fingers crossed, but no invite yet :(

    I don't want to add my name to the spreadsheet until I am sure the invites have ended

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  34. Follow Twephanie for the latest news about Google Wave invites.

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  35. Trading a www.LeagueofLegends.com private beta invite for a Google Wave one! dk.vali@gmail.com

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  36. I give up. Google doesn't like me at all.

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  37. "Anonymous Anonymous said on October 6, 2009 2:48 AM PDT:
    My small company has a few google wave invites left. shoot me a fast email @ jmswhite101@gmail.com"

    I did this, and he said he setup a temporary password, and then i went to the page, and it asked for a credit card,

    Don't Trust!!

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  38. Beware! There are many sites that pretend to offer thousands of Google Wave invites, but they're only looking for ad impressions, getting your email address for sending spam, obtaining personal information or even getting money from you. Don't be fooled!

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  39. I got an email from jenny@electronicsupplements.com that required a partner program signup. What a load of crap! So, perhaps other spammers out there will see the address jenny@electronicsupplements.com as it is pasted in plain text here. Hopefully that might flood their network with spam.

    Take that! That's what Jenny at Electronic Supplements gets for getting my hopes up. Fooey on you Jenny. :OP

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  40. yeah, same jenny@electronicsupplements.com tried to bringt me to her web-page, too. first five seconds i read this email i was happy to expect some invites... but then i realized this might be the first person to use the spreadsheet to send spam...

    oh... and somehow the list is moving. i wrote my address down on like place 20 or 30. now i moved down to way over 100... ;-)

    ah... and something importent:

    hey greedy guys! don't cheat! :-P

    if i really get an invite in some future point in time, i will beginn in the middle to send some invites :-P

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  41. I am so peeved !! I was given an email by that JMSwhite101..it all looked legit so I clicked on the invite and it showed the google wave logo and all,at the bottom it had a login user id and a password..which was sent to me..so I added it
    once I did this it took me to some damn page ( along with the google wave logo ..to make it SEEM that all was ok except it asked for a credit card number and it said I would have to join 2 places to get the google wave invite..it just really peeves me that people are doing this and getting our info this way..I did NOT put it any credit card numbers because I know google wave is FREE..but still this id email got some of my info...I kept the emails that it sent me..I should be given an invite from google ( yes I did apply for one to the right place to begin with!)

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  42. I just received my Google Wave account, but didn't see any way to invite others. After a bunch of searching, I came across your comment:

    "From what I heard, if you don't get an invitation from Google, you can't nominate other people for invitations."

    I just wanted to add that your statement seems to be correct, at least, from what I can tell. I received my invite from a non-Googler and indeed, don't have the "Invite others to Google Wave" wave in my inbox. Oh well.

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  43. I'm still waiting for my invite like many of you probably are. I've never been this excited about software in my entire life. God I'm such a dork..a dork who loves the google.

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  44. I'm seeing lots of incorrect people here who have no idea what Wave is. It's a new protocol that Google hopes will be used instead of email. It should not be compatible with email since that would limit what you could do with Wave and having different implementations of it could hurt compatibility between servers (let's say Google and Yahoo). If someone wants when Wave is ready, they could create an inbox that supports communication using both these protocols but that is not what Google is doing with it.

    Also @ Dallasmay, why can you compare Google Wave to IE6 while Hyperslug can't compare it to an iPhone? His argument is much more valid than yours. Anyways, IE6 only has 24% market share, not 65% so get your facts straight. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Msieshare1

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  45. I received a Wave invite, and started my account, but don't have any way to invite others to Wave to join me. Without that capacity, this technology seems pretty useless. Who am I supposed to "collaborate" with if no one else I know is on Google Wave?

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  46. @Ashley:

    You have at least one Google Wave contact: the person that sent you the invitation. If other contacts receive invitations, you'll see them in the contacts list. It's obvious that Google needs to limit the number of invitations: if every Google Wave users had the opportunity to invite 8 people, the number of users would grow exponentially.

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  47. Does anyone know the approximate wait time for someone to receive an invite after they've been invited by a friend? I know it's not immediate, but I've heard hours, days, and even weeks. A friend used 1 of his 8 on me, and I am anxiously anticipating that email!

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  48. I was scrambling all over for an invite and got it yesterday through http://www.invitegooglewave.com May be my luck was better for this. But, I cant give any guarantee, just telling this to help everyone to get invited. Hope this helps. thanks!

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  49. @ Alex Chitu

    Why exactly is it that Google has to limit capacity? Ashley makes a good point, which is my current state as well. The person who invited me is quite busy, and I don't have anyone to test out the features with.

    People are excited about Google Wave, I have it, I have it open, except that I see nothing to be excited about because I can't use it.

    So, I'm not a tech expert, but why does Google have to limit capacity? Why not open it to everyone, then work the bugs out as the appear.

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  50. "Why exactly is it that Google has to limit capacity? "

    Because scaling a service to handle millions of users is a difficult task and it's a good idea to extend the user base gradually. Google Wave is still an experimental service and there are many bugs and missing features, so Google wanted to invite developers, early adopters and users who are willing to report bugs.

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  51. If you are in London, now there is a chance to get invited on October 26th during the Google Tech Team's meet-up. Have a look on http://www.invitegooglewave.com

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  52. If you are in London, now there is a chance to get invited on October 26th during the Google Tech Team's meet-up. Have a look on http://www.invitegooglewave.com or just click my name tag for the exact story.

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  53. So let me get this straight...I can only use Wave with other Wave users? I can't use it as a regular email client too? Wouldn't that be like the iPhone, but I can only call people with iPhones? Or gmail, but I can only email other gmail users? So not only do I have to continue using regular email in addition to Wave, but everyone I know & every company I deal with also have to use regular email in addition to Wave?

    Until someone comes out with a way to use Wave with regular email this will never catch on with the general public.

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  54. http://jsquaredtm.blogspot.com/2009/10/google-wave-invites.html#commentslabel

    3 Free Invites to be given out!

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  55. We are giving away invites, go to http://www.solidstategroup.com/what-we-think/cookie-jar-7-launches and follow the instructions for your chance to win one of 5 of our precious invites.

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  56. I have 10 invites to be given out. Would love a ffffound account in return.

    Email me at craigy.pearson@gmail.com

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  57. Google WHAT? Why do I always have to find out about these cool things last..? :)

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  58. We have a few invites left...
    http://withwaves.com/looking-for-a-google-wave-invite-withwaves-invite-giveaway-inside/

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  59. I would appreciate an invite Google Wave: gustavo.rugila@gmail.com
    Twitter: @gustavorugila
    Thanks a lot

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  60. Hey these fellas are running a competition to give some invites away http://webapphut.com/giving-away-5-google-wave-invites

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  61. The sad thing is: Now I got a Wave account, but have nearly nobody to wave with :(

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  62. I'm the same way. I have an account but the main ppl I talk to don't.

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  63. From what I'm seeing about the protocol, Wave can be compared with Google Talk. It's actually an extension of the same protocol. The thing that will probably make Wave catch on is the fact that it's an open standard, and there already exist experimental third-party system. While I don't see Wave replacing email anytime soon for the general public, for group collaboration that currently relies on a combination of email and instant messaging, Wave could replace (especially if a group is already using XMPP since Wave is just an extension of that protocol).

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  64. Just got an invite from here http://blog.tjitjing.com/index.php/2009/11/get-a-google-wave-invite.html good luck!

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  65. does anyone have any extra invites? Would be greatly appreciated! Email me adb3066@gmail.com

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  66. Anyone concerned with bandwidth? I am wandering how google can afford to host upcoming google wave technology to the world. Alo will we be able to implement this technology into our future web sites? If so, how will the bandwidth be handled. If not then what's the point in using it? I NEED solid collaboration software within my network of clients but how can I control the bandwidth usage? Will this be a security issue? I have way too many questions. This is going to take awhile before we can even begin to develop for this. Still I appreciate google's effort and hope thitakes off.

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  67. i still got 14 invitea to give

    http://home.lxd.bplaced.com

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  68. I've got the invitation of Google Wave on November 25. Yay.. finally :D

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  69. I have 5 Google Wave invites left. E-mail me at kcwcl2008@gmail.com if you would like one.

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  70. invites.. anyone.. i have +6 giving away 3 hit me up or email @ marksmiley82@gmail.com first come first serve..

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  71. I have a google account (for user apps)
    I received an invite from another source (not google)
    Anything I type in (gltboiutdhglyth@googlewave.com) for a user name is not accepted/available?

    "Sorry, only letters (a-z), numbers (0-9), and periods (.) are allowed"
    (quote from-https://www.google.com/accounts/CreateAccount?continue=https)

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  72. I've been waiting for my invite for 5 weeks now... that seems an extremely long time!

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  73. hi

    has anyone got any Google Wave invites left?? Please send me one ronald.chand@gmail.com

    Cheers guys..

    ReplyDelete

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