This is quite a remarkable piece of software engineering, very impressive stuff. I'm really glad they're open enough about it to share their techniques.
Also, I'd never heard of doing a "dark launch" before, but it sounds like a fantastic way to get early feedback from users.
Also they did stage the launch over a few weeks. I noticed it appear on my facebook page (because I'm in the Stanford network) well before it appeared on most of my friends'
Also, I'd never heard of doing a "dark launch" before, but it sounds like a fantastic way to get early feedback from users.