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The problem is that people expect more from Google. People understand the conference is popular and so should Google. If anyone could handle this type of load, you would think they would be near the top of the list. However, every year people need to sit at their computer staring at animated gif or rapidly hitting F5. Even when you get past the first screen and are told that you have tickets waiting for you, the payment processing often fails. That is exceptionally frustrating.

I'm guessing you didn't spend an hour today waiting in opaque queues that weren't first-come-first-served (and errored out when it seemed likely to succeed).

the problem is with the way they are selling tickets. All they've managed to do is tell a load of developers that Google Wallet is flakey.

I don't know what they are so worried about that they give you 5 minutes to pay. The thing is going to sell out even if they give people a week to pay!

Probably because it's a chance to get the latest and greatest hardware for a ridiculously low price.