It makes not receiving a ticket feel less insulting.

1) No feeling of "I missed the 2 minute window"

2) No feeling of "I couldn't buy it because your system was down"

I mean it still sucks for people that can't make it, but want to go, but at least everyone at least gets a chance this way.

Conversely, not pounding F5 until I get a ticket makes me feel powerless.

>> Conversely, not pounding F5 until I get a ticket makes me feel powerless.

Actually, last year they implemented some kind of IP-based persistence for each potential attendee: you could try to get on queue for a ticket on your smartphone or laptop and every time you access the timer did a reset.

At least that had an interactive element in jumping back into the queue when Google Wallet stalled out.

I know the year before last the tickets were transferable if you claimed you couldn't attend, but they weren't this past Google IO. Not that people don't register and then just sell the badge or share it anyway.