Can't say I didn't see this coming. It's been the same absurd registration experience for several years now. What Google really needs to do is stop throwing all this free swag around so the conference can really find its intended purpose and audience again: developers. I've to most I/Os since its inception, and damn has the quality of the actual conference gone down since the first.
Although I don't think the free stuff helps matters, WWDC tends to be a very similar free for all - slightly less hectic, but that's only because Apple don't give notice of when the tickets are going on sale, so it's more of a mad scramble than a pre-planned thing.
Which is to say, in terms of registration issues I'm not sure making it more technical and getting rid of the free swag would alleviate matters, if you just go by what happens with WWDC.
Oh, it's I/O time again.. HN for the next few days will be nothing else than blogs crying about not getting in (and various reasons for why it is not fair). Oh well..
I'm not really bothered by the fairness (or otherwise) of it, I'm just amazed that Google keeps getting this so horribly wrong. I thought they might have learned after the Nexus 4 mess that they need to improve their purchasing system, but no.
Their 'fix' appears to have been handling page reloads for us, and making sure it's only done every 30 seconds- rather than, say, addressing the underlying weakness in their system.
Searches never got anything for me. Girlfriend got to buy button which never returned from graying out after pressed. Wish I'd tried the dismiss popup and retry or check wallet in another tab tricks people mentioned working here. As it is, lost the ticket due to the 5 minute finish count. Oh, well, always next year. :)
This brings up a common problem I have with high demand ticket sales. Why not, for at least the first portion of tickets, us a scaling price? When sales open, the price is $10,000. Drop the cost by 1% of the starting price per minute for the first 90 minutes. Recalculate the starting price at the current price and begin again until we reach a floor.
So if sales start at 9:00 am we have the following schedule:
09:00 am : $10,000
09:01 am : $9,990
10:30 am : $1,000
12:00 noon: $100
Google doesn't necessarily want the richest companies/developers to attend. Nor are they interested in extracting the maximum amount of money (though of course they could do a few charity auctions). A good mix of small companies, freelancers, corporations is probably what they're aiming for.
How irritating. I got as far as getting a ticket for Google I/O three times. Google Wallet failed to complete the transaction all three times, although once it got as far as creating a "pending" transaction. After the third Google Wallet failure, Google I/O was sold out.
Kind of happened to me. The first time, the modal didn't complete, but I received an email that the charge updated. For kicks, I jumped into the queue again and that time the page completed all the way to the reg form. I now have two pending $300 charges.
I think this is definitely not a good first impression of Google Wallet. It was my first time using Google Wallet and I think it was for many others as well.
[+] [-] jechen|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] objclxt|13 years ago|reply
Which is to say, in terms of registration issues I'm not sure making it more technical and getting rid of the free swag would alleviate matters, if you just go by what happens with WWDC.
[+] [-] rplnt|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] untog|13 years ago|reply
Their 'fix' appears to have been handling page reloads for us, and making sure it's only done every 30 seconds- rather than, say, addressing the underlying weakness in their system.
[+] [-] rjzzleep|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fallingmeat|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robflynn|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robflynn|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mfkp|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lnanek2|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nchlswu|13 years ago|reply
Obviously it's a small chunk of all online sales, but it always seems like the process fails somewhere
[+] [-] thomaslangston|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Jabbles|13 years ago|reply
Google doesn't necessarily want the richest companies/developers to attend. Nor are they interested in extracting the maximum amount of money (though of course they could do a few charity auctions). A good mix of small companies, freelancers, corporations is probably what they're aiming for.
[+] [-] CCs|13 years ago|reply
Console says "Failed to load resource: the server responded wit status 401 on checkout.google.com/inapp/api/v1/purchase_options"
[+] [-] CCs|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jstreebin|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tjs-mn|13 years ago|reply
Geez....
[+] [-] frankchn|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DrewRWx|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] double051|13 years ago|reply
Trying again, but now I'm seeing this: "Try again. We couldn't find you a ticket, but there still might be tickets left!"
[+] [-] bkbonner|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] keithvan|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fallingmeat|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] georgelawrence|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fallingmeat|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] metajack|13 years ago|reply
http://imgur.com/opR63hx