It IS a pyramid system.  One person gives to say, 6.

6 give to their 6 each.

36.

36 gives to 6 each.

216.

THAT IS what pyramid selling is all about...or call it Viral Marketing if you must.

Google does NOTHING but push this distribution system to get the fastest take-up of the service as possible -  the USER DOES THE MARKETING and DISTRIBUTION.

The success of the service DEPENDS solely on its popularity breeding further popularity.... just like chain letters, pyramid schemes or viral YouTube advertising.

I don't give any time for whether Google is evil or not [I use the search engine]...but its pre-occupation with mass saturation of EVERY facet of Computing online is ultimately DANGEROUS.

And...to push the point so you are abundantly clear....when Google actively filters results of their search engine dependent on Government pressures [any government] then the online world is one step removed [if that] from THOUGHT POLICE.

Google wants to be Orwell's Ministry of Information..... fascist undertones and all.

It's not the distribution chain that ultimately defines a pyramid scheme.  It is the remuneration.  In the case of these invites, every gifter would be getting something from the giftee and every giftee thereafter.  That would be a pyramid scheme.  Everyone on down the line pays all those before them.  Google+ and Gmail invites have nothing to do with remuneration.  It's just passing on invitations.  I've seen nightclub events promoted this way.  There is no pyramid scheme here.  Once an invite is passed on, the relationship between gifter and giftee is ended.  This comes far closer to word of mouth advertising.  And for a social networking venue... distribution based on personal invites fits particularly well.

I share concerns of though policing as well as monopoly.  And I am very perturbed to have to constantly delete my cookies and browser data so I can get clean searches.  But outright pissed that anyone would get between me and my search of knowledge... just to pimp their product or politics.  But I have no information to show me that Yahoo or Bing or anyone else is any less subject to government meddling than Google is.  Microsoft on the otherhand... Anyhow, lots to say about this subject.  Too much for here.  Just wanted to point out your fallacy in calling the Google+ marketing/distribution method a pyramid scheme.  It is not!   

WhiteElk.... Google is a parasite, and what it is doing with this invite scheme, take out the money, is to use its followers/devotees to perpetuate a service using the pyramid principle

Okay, so no money changes hands between the gifters and the giftees, but that still does not disqualify what Google is doing as being a pyramid scheme... the end result is that one party profits, that party being Google. The only difference between this and a regular pyramid scheme is that all those who are used along the way are cheated, their efforts deliberately employed without remuneration.   That IMO makes Google evil.

I think people read too much into things sometimes. Is Google evil? Well, I suppose so. I pretty much think ANY really successful corporation is evil. BUT, to say they're evil because of invites? Really people?

Sometimes people just want to jump down their throats. They're trying to promote a new site. It may be viral, but what isn't viral on the internet these days? 

I'm not necessarily a fanboy of Google, but I'm not a hater either. I just think that it's ridiculous to say that Google is evil because they give people invites on a SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE. OH NO! They must be stopped!

"A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves promising participants payment, services or ideals, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme or training them to take part, rather than supplying any real investment or sale of products or services to the public. Pyramid schemes are a form of fraud.^[1][2]

Pyramid schemes are illegal in many countries including Albania, Australia^[3], Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China^[4], Colombia^[5], Denmark, the Dominican Republic^[6], Estonia^[7], France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Iran^[8], Italy^[9], Japan^[10], Mexico, Nepal, The Netherlands^[11], New Zealand^[12], Norway^[13], the Philippines^[14], Poland, Portugal, Romania^[15], South Africa^[16], Spain, Sri Lanka^[17], Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand^[18], Turkey^[19], the United Kingdom, and the United States^[20].

These types of schemes have existed for at least a century, some with variations to hide their true nature, and many people believe that multilevel marketing is also a pyramid scheme"

Oh gosh....I used GOOGLE to define what Google is doing.

Ain't I clever.....

Not really

And I love this quote

I get clean searches without doing all that.

How Google makes money (as of 2009) and is it a pyramid scheme? A pyramid of gold scheme:

There is no promised payment Jafo.  There are no kickbacks of any kind.  Nothing is gained or promised in the giving away of invites.  pyramid schemes are illegal because late investors WILL lose.  It is guaranteed to fail.  Earnings are based on recruitment.  Recruitment will eventually end.  

For Google+ to be identified as a pyramid or ponzi scheme, users would have to be at risk of losing their accounts when recruitment efforts fail to enlist new users.  This is not the case.  This is nothing more than a version of word of mouth advertising.  

I find their marketing method to be a little silly (as people can find threads like this where the invites are given out like candy), but I find nothing nothing illegal or immoral in it.  And I find it rather fitting that a social networking service would require an invitation to participate.  Eventually though, I presume that the invite system will be dropped once the beta phase is complete and the system is ready for mainstream use.  Thats how it went down with Gmail anyway.  And it makes sense to me.  Sort of like how users must actively flip a switch at Impulse in order to gain access to E:WOMs beta releases.  Googles invite stage = beta phase.  But really this about creating a buzz.

I'm guessing that your problem with this Jafo, comes from thinking of Google as using the people as unpaid advertisers.  Or that Google creates a buzz around their product by leveraging on peoples desire to participate in programs of exclusivity.  From these angles I can understand your grief.  Though I disagree.  I much prefer this method of marketing over having my ears, eyes, and mind assaulted with product misrepresentations and garbage totally unrelated to the product.  I put no value in software review articles.  Best to hear directly from the users. etc.  But thats a personal preference.  If you don't like Googles methods, fine.  But call it like it is.  You just don't like the method.  But it is Not a pyramid scheme.   

There is a world wide pyramid sales system worldwide. It's called the stock market

Couple of quibbles: There are many stock markets, not just one. And while they might be involved in pyramid schemes, the markets themselves are nothing worse than legalized gambling with typically generous tax rules for winnings. Mostly, I tend to think of them as mood rings for the rich and the servants who tend massive money piles for the rich. 

WhiteElk you are wrong, plain and simple.

The advertising/distribution/marketing IS a Pyramid 'scheme' process as it's a mathematical progression.  I can't help it if you are lost in semantics for whatever reason but so be it.

Google does NOTHING other than distribute/advertise/invite sufficient people to get the PYRAMID system kick-started.

It ultimately costs THEM nothing in advertising their service....they don't letter-drop...door knock....take TV time....whatever.  No, they "employ" their own users/customers to Advertise FOR them.  They subversively 'trick' their users into spending time and/or effort passing on these 'invites' to others for no fee for work done....none offered....none given.

They then benefit from the viral nature of the PYRAMID process to disseminate their advertising to as many people as fast as possible so as to falsely imply their service is both fantastically desirable and indispensible.

None of it/them are.

The reason Google is commercially successful is down to their ability to suck in as many people as quickly as possible into there data-mining processes desired by and bought by their Advertisers.

It is this dissemination of invitations in PYRAMID form that ensures the commercial success of Google.  They need a database of users....and the users themselves get them FOR Google.

Lemmings.

Ignoring the mathematics of Pyramid distribution, even without people involved 'paying Google' to please YOUR interpretation of a 'Pyramid Scheme'... the mechanics of it is this...

Google GIVES User One 6 invites.

User 1 spends 5 minutes passing on [advertising] them [Google] - and spending time has a commercial 'value'.

Tier 2 [of a PYRAMID] each spends 5 minutes advertising Google....'cost to' Tier 2 = 30 minutes

Tier 3 each 5 minutes advertising ...180 minutes [three hours of 'advertising that Google didn't pay for]

Tier 4 - do I really have to go on.... or is it making sense yet?

The whole fun of it is...."do no harm" or whatever Google's motto is looks intact....there's nothing of the 'regular' Pyramid to collapse...

...but perhaps their motto should be 'Get others to do your work FOR you....and don't even THINK of paying them for the privilege"

Or, Huckleberry Finn's fence painting scheme.

Yes...Mark Twain should sue for royalties....