Looking for a Google+ invite? Either get comfortable - or get crafty.

The Google+ invite mechanism was reportedly shut down last night after 'insane demand' for access flooded the system.

Google+ invites – plenty of bloggers and tech writers already have them, and plenty of regular Web users really want them. And so, for a brief period of time on Wednesday night, Google opened the floodgates, allowing current Google+ members to invite their pals. But according to Google exec Vic Gundotra, invites flew so fast and furious that the invite mechanism was quickly shut down again.

"Insane demand," Gundotra wrote on his Google+ account. "We need to do this carefully, and in a controlled way. Thank you all for your interest!"

But have no fear, prospective Google+ user! Over at CNET, the resourceful Stephen Shankland has cobbled together a kind of runaround, which allows current Google+ members to extend an invitation to friends, without utilizing the direct invitation functionality. It requires a little bit of cutting and pasting, and some elbow grease, but if you're determined to get onto Google+ before the rest of the world, this might be your ticket.

Late to the Google+ game? Here's the CliffsNotes: Google+ is sort of like Facebook, but instead of friends and "likes," you get "Circles" and "Sparks." Most analysts see Google+ as a direct broadside against Facebook, which currently counts upward of 700 million members, and generates millions of dollars in ad revenue, and generally dominates the social media world. Will Google+ work? Hard to say.

Appropriately enough, MySpace was bought this month for the low-low price of $35 million – proof that even a once-dominant platform can be edged out of the spotlight by an energetic up-and-comer. Unfortunately for Google, the reviews of Google+ have been far from universally enthusiastic. In a two out of five star review on the Website of the Guardian, Charles Arthur worried that Google had tried to do too much with its new platform.

"Being social," Arthur wrote, "isn't just about involving lots of people in things. It's also about getting out of the way. The irony is that Google's biggest product, its search page, is a classic of simple design. But everything else it does becomes too complicated. Google+ might work better if it tried to do less, and then built it up." Other reviews were a little more mild.

But what about your review? Have you had a chance to use Google+? Drop us a line in the comments section below.