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 think its fair enough

[Chrisq]

Beta means "it may change without warning". With traditional apps you have a choice to upgrade or not, but not with web applications. As long as there is active development then it is essentially a beta. Maybe they should have used a different term, but I think it is useful to have a warning that there may be frequent and substantial changes.

Change? No. Excuse? Yes.

[Bieeanda]

Companies have been hiding behind the title 'beta' for years, and numerous end-users have no idea what the Hell the term means anyway. It's just an excuse to shovel half-completed applications out and fiddle with them at leisure. Missing functionality? Oh, it's just beta code. Broken functionality? Oh, just wait for the patch. Completely redesigned UI, data loss, unannounced restrictions? Silly, it's a beta! You shouldn't be using it for mission-critical purposes, even though we're always suggesting that you do.

Christ, game companies have been using 'beta' as a dodge for shitty demos since Shiny squeezed Messiah out. The fact that the same 'it's just a beta, it'll get better!' promises and pleas have trickled upward and outward is clear indication that gravity itself is in beta, because shit certainly doesn't just flow downhill any more.

Beta = Everything old is NEW again!

[digitaldc]

While we wait, if any of you should have a theory of your own, please share with the group.

My theory is that by always having 'beta' next to something, this ensures that anyone who uses their tools will always think they are using the latest and greatest.

Or, maybe they want to remind people of a fish, that swims alone from the crowd with a brilliant display of features.

Re:That's just plain stupid

[Vellmont]

Also, what I quite don't understand is why they would want to call it beta, I mean, it's not like it's got a good cling to it.

No it's not. I really don't know why they continue to use "beta" when a product is clearly mature.

My honest guess? It's a compromise between the marketing people and the developers. Developers want to add new things continuously and not go through these product development stages where they do endless testing to see if people like a new feature. Marketing people get all nervous about new features "ruining their brand". The developers are still in charge at Google (being a young company), so the compromise is just to call everything "beta" (A pretty stupid compromise IMO).

You're entirely right about the "pay for premium" though. Google needs to drop the stupid beta word, and pick something that's more representative of what the product is. I'd choose something more like a "lifestage" kind of label. Toddler, teenage, adult, mature, senior, elderly would be good starts.