Glitch gives 'spam' to Google+ users

No thanks to a glitch, many users of upcoming social network Google+ found themselves the targets of “spam" —unsolicited and often unwanted messages— from search giant Google over the weekend. Senior Vice-President of Social for Google Vic Gundotra posted an apology on Sunday (Manila time) for the “glitch," which he said had lasted 80 minutes. “Please accept our apologies for the spam we caused this afternoon... For about 80 minutes we ran out of disk space on the service that keeps track of notifications. Hence our system continued to try sending notifications. Over, and over again. Yikes," he said. He said they did not expect to hit these high thresholds so quickly, although they should have. “Thank you for helping us during this field trial, and once again, we are very sorry for the spam," he said. Google+ is viewed by many as a challenger to social networking juggernaut Facebook, but is still in private beta, accepting testers only by invitation at this stage. A story on tech site The Next Web said many Google+ users voiced displeasure at receiving the notifications through micro-blogging site Twitter. In some cases, it said members received over 50 messages telling them that a friend had added them to a “Circle" — a group similar to a “Friend List" on Facebook. But after Gundotra issued the apology, several users appeared to have accepted it. “No worries Vic. Keep up the good work! Looking forward to more improvements!" said Google+ user Colby Brown. “Apologies accepted," said Suat Seals. — MRT/KBK, GMA News