"Things are really busy right now, and we're assigning tickets as they become available. We'll keep trying to get you a ticket for up to 6 minutes. After that, if we don't have a ticket for you, we'll send you back to the main page and you can try again.
Don't do any of the following. They'll decrease your chances of getting a ticket.
Refresh this page
Try to register in a new tab
Try to register in another browser
Hammer the JavaScript endpoints using the JS Console"*
If Google are being clever about it (and you'd assume they are) then they would have tied ticket search into your Google Plus account, so multiple browser sessions would be of little help, private or not.
I would think you would need multiple Google+ accounts. Their language on the site says that connecting multiple times from the same account will reset your position in the queue.
From what I understand with talking to a few folks, they're released in batches of 100 or so every few minutes. So, in theory, it's possible to "run out of tickets" only to have another batch of them be released in the system a few minutes later.
I'm sitting in the queue and just got kicked back after 6 minutes and started the process again.
Last year's Google IO conference sold out in minutes, and it looks like this year's is even more hectic. I wonder how long it'll be until they decide to switch to an alternative approach. What about ticket raffles or an online-only event?
They do stream all the sessions online, along with the I/O extended sessions around the world. I think Google do a good job of making the actual material available...although I will accept that is no substitute for the networking/experience you get from being there. That's one reason why the Extended events are quite good, as you're generally able to meet a wide range of people.
To be honest, I think the best solution would just be to lottery it, but then again I suspect if they were to lottery it there'd be a lot more people entering than attempting to get tickets in such a short space of time.
It seems like the best option would be to stop giving out freebies with high dollar value. Since the I/O sessions are streamed live and are archived on youtube, there's no real reason to attend outside of networking and getting the freebies for most folks.
I've got the same issue. I was signed in at 7am, waited for a ticket for a minute and then it kicked me back to the main page to sign into G+ again. Still waiting for a ticket.
Opening google.com/+ shows the cookie is still intact. There's also a ping every 30 seconds to https://developers.google.com/events/register/waitlist/statu... that returns {"status":"waiting"}. Trying that URL from a remote console returns {"status":"reregister"}, so the Sign In header appears spurious.
You can ignore the "Sign in" link on the ticketsearch page. When the 6 min passed and throws you back to the first page, it will correctly show that you're signed in.
fvck me too, clearly they could implement a lottery system but then they wouldn't get all the press:
"google i/o sells out again in record time - site mostly doesn't crash this year!"
at 7:01 after the "Waiting for an available ticket" I got the message "We couldn't find you a ticket, but there still might be tickets left!".. I'm curious if anyone got through yet.
Clicked Register right at 7am, spun for 6 minutes, booted back to the home screen. Jesus, I've been to massive music-festivals that were easier to get into than this conferences. Plus those you can at least scalp tickets later if you need to.
1. First time, got into the "Waiting for available ticket..." screen, got kicked after about a minute.
2. Second time, got into the "Waiting for available ticket..." screen, got kicked after six minutes (maximum time you can spend on that screen.) Was redirected to a "No More Tickets Available" page, but went back to the main page and saw it said "There might be tickets still available!"
3. Third time, got into the "Waiting for available ticket..." screen, kicked after six minutes again, but was redirected back to the main page and told "There might be tickets still available!"
4. Fourth time, see third time.
5. Fifth time, see fourth time.
6. Sixth time, see fifth time.
7. Seventh time, see sixth time.
8. Eighth time, see seventh time, except when I got kicked I was also told I needed to sign into Google+ again.
9. Ninth time, got to the Google Wallet screen after a minute, paid, and registered! I'm going to Google I/O 2013!!
Got a ticket reserved, but then Google Wallet was failing to load my credit card data. After 4:30 of waiting, it finally kicked in and I kicked off a purchase, only to have the timer run out before it finished.
So now I've got a pending $900 charge on my Google Wallet account. Guess I get to see if that actually goes through and I get a ticket.
Edit: Google has cancelled the $900 charge and I now do not have a ticket. Cool. /s
Same here -- my payment window timed out, I was told to try again, and now I have two charges on my account with no verification of registration. Something is off with Google Wallet.
Got in, pressed purchase, got the modal, pressed the pay button, "Your purchase will complete momentarily ...", sat for a while, closed modal, started over x2, tried waiting for 3 minutes, timed out, no pending charges. How annoying.
The same problem plagues the ticket sites when music festival tickets go on sale (TicketMaster, Gigs and Tours, etc.) and also the London Olympics site. No one seems to get it right.
I wonder if they are doing some kind of an artificial delay in handing out tickets instead of just making them available at the start. Really, a better way to handle this is the way that the World Cup does it: you enter a lottery and if you win you can buy a ticket. That is a bit more fair, and probably easier on their servers.
> Why do they have to do this at 7AN Pacific? What engineer is getting up at this unearthly hour?
Surprisingly, some engineers do live outside of California. Last year Apple put WWDC tickets on sale at 5:30AM PDT without notice...the rumour mill suggested this was deliberately done by Apple to ensure more attendees from outside the west coast.
Whatever time you put tickets on sale, somebody is going to complain. There are certainly two sides to the coin here...
Yeh the Apple WWDC was worse. If I remember rightly, it wasnt really announced ahead of time when the tickets would be going on sale either. I just woke up one day and 'poof - sold out'.
I think you're right, it must be deliberate!
(sigh - another 500 Server Error - haven't had one of those in ten minutes - things are improving!)
Got a ticket! I canceled the payment a couple times, if it took more than a minute I canceled. Got stuck in the processing payment, it failed, and tried one more time and it worked. After that it took me to a signup form, with a long questionaire. I guess if you didn't see that, you don't have a ticket.
I think it will be interesting to look at the numbers and the queuing challenges faced by Google during Nexus4/10 launch and io2013, if they ever release it
114 comments
[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 120 ms ] thread"Things are really busy right now, and we're assigning tickets as they become available. We'll keep trying to get you a ticket for up to 6 minutes. After that, if we don't have a ticket for you, we'll send you back to the main page and you can try again.
Don't do any of the following. They'll decrease your chances of getting a ticket.
I'm sitting in the queue and just got kicked back after 6 minutes and started the process again.
To be honest, I think the best solution would just be to lottery it, but then again I suspect if they were to lottery it there'd be a lot more people entering than attempting to get tickets in such a short space of time.
1. First time, got into the "Waiting for available ticket..." screen, got kicked after about a minute.
2. Second time, got into the "Waiting for available ticket..." screen, got kicked after six minutes (maximum time you can spend on that screen.) Was redirected to a "No More Tickets Available" page, but went back to the main page and saw it said "There might be tickets still available!"
3. Third time, got into the "Waiting for available ticket..." screen, kicked after six minutes again, but was redirected back to the main page and told "There might be tickets still available!"
4. Fourth time, see third time.
5. Fifth time, see fourth time.
6. Sixth time, see fifth time.
7. Seventh time, see sixth time.
8. Eighth time, see seventh time, except when I got kicked I was also told I needed to sign into Google+ again.
9. Ninth time, got to the Google Wallet screen after a minute, paid, and registered! I'm going to Google I/O 2013!!
So now I've got a pending $900 charge on my Google Wallet account. Guess I get to see if that actually goes through and I get a ticket.
Edit: Google has cancelled the $900 charge and I now do not have a ticket. Cool. /s
:(
😎
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5368574
Why oh Why do they have to do this at 7AN Pacific? What engineer is getting up at this unearthly hour?
Surprisingly, some engineers do live outside of California. Last year Apple put WWDC tickets on sale at 5:30AM PDT without notice...the rumour mill suggested this was deliberately done by Apple to ensure more attendees from outside the west coast.
Whatever time you put tickets on sale, somebody is going to complain. There are certainly two sides to the coin here...
I think you're right, it must be deliberate!
(sigh - another 500 Server Error - haven't had one of those in ten minutes - things are improving!)