Google+ Too Popular for Everyone, Now Only the Cool Kids Are Allowed Inside

It seems as if Google+, the company's long-awaited social networking entity (AKA its long-awaited Facebook-killer) is more popular than anticipated. Launching just

, Google

touted the service as being much safer and much more secure than other social networking sites. The message read like it was written for the millions of Facebook users who have been frustrated by that site's questionable privacy settings, among other issues. Now it appears that that message is paying off. Either that or Google is making (marketing!?) a mount out of a molehill, because the search engine giant has put a temporary end to invites due to what Vic Gundotra refers to as “insane demand.” Gundotra, who is overseeing the company's social networking efforts, was quoted in the

about the dilemma. “We've shut down invite mechanism for the night,” Gundotra wrote on his blog. “Insane demand. We need to do this carefully, and in a controlled way. Thank you all for your interest!” With roughly 1,100 +1's and more than 1,000 shares,

is gaining quite a bit of steam. Interestingly, the Los Angeles Times reports that Google did not formally announce that it had turned on its invite feature yesterday. Instead, the company used a small red envelope with its “G+” logo to hype this option, along with the words, “invite people to join Google+.” TechCrunch Europe (among other sites) has since attempted to circumvent the invite closure

that may or may not allow Google+ users to send an invite to their friends.