Has Google Redefined Beta?

netbuzz writes "Someone finally took the time to do a count of all the Google apps marked 'beta.' And with fully 45% of its products carrying that familiar tag — including 4-year-old Gmail — Google says there's an explanation: Beta doesn't mean to them what it has long meant to the rest of the tech community. 'We believe beta has a different meaning when applied to applications on the Web,' says a company spokesman."

Comments

I prefer the old definitions:

[Chemisor]

Alpha: it doesn't work.
Beta: it still doesn't work.

Re:I prefer the old definitions:

[Daimanta]

And to continue on that

Release Candidate: It might work, but it probably won't
Gold: It still doesn't work, but users are great bugtester
SP1: Still not done, has some bugs left and misses some funtionality
SP2: This one might actually be done, try at your own risk though

Re:I prefer the old definitions:

[Smivs]

Re Gmail being beta, does this mean when it's 'finished' it will be Alpha mail?

Re:I prefer the old definitions:

[idlehanz]

And one more SP3: The last release you'll see for this product because getting revenue from a new product is cheaper than fixing any more bugs.

Re:I prefer the old definitions:

[clickety6]

Software Development Lifecycle

Alpha- short for "It's alpha-lly crap"

Beta - short for "It's still alpha-ally crap, but it's beta than it was"

Release - short for "it still release-tinks, but we've gotta publish"

Gold - Short for "it's gold-arn awful, but at least it's out the door"

Re:"Has Google Redefined Beta?"

[Phylarr]

I would, but the tags are still in Beta.

Google is Following in Humpty Dumpty's Footsteps

[SwashbucklingCowboy]

When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.

--- Humpty Dumpty

as if anyone is in a position to argue?

[circletimessquare]

google could redefine a cucumber as a small nocturnal mammal, and the whole world would fall in line. google search is all of our collective recall. it's the 800 pound gorilla of the web. it can make any word mean anything they want it to

call it a "google mind trick"

World: Let us see Gmail move out of beta.
Google: [with a small tweak of the spider] You don't need to see Gmail move out of beta.
World: We don't need to Gmail move out of beta.
Google: Beta does not have the meaning you think it has.
World: Beta does not have the meaning I think it has.
Google: You believe beta has a different meaning when applied to applications on the Web.
World: I believe beta has a different meaning when applied to applications on the Web.
Gmail: Move along.
World: Move along... move along.

Re:That's just plain stupid

[Jonah Hex]

Well for a company that can't spell Googol correctly, I'm not surprised they would not be using the word Beta correctly. We're just lucky they haven't started spelling it Baitah, Beata, or Bayta.
 
Jonah HEX

Re:That's just plain stupid

[darth dickinson]

Ask your wife/girlfriend/SO if getting a BJ from someone else is considered sexual relations. Go ahead, we'll wait.

Re:That's just plain stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

It's just how life works. If you're important enough you can do whatever you want.

There, fixed it for you.

See, you replaced a word, while google would've changed the definition :-)