Comments on: The Beta As An Excuse?

By: Conversion Rater

Conversion Rater — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 22:33:06 +0000

Om Talks About Betas, And I Agree

Om Malik discusses a WSJ story about the new web applications all being “beta” releases and what it means. There are good arguments on both sides of the fence on this one. The traditional side thinks that releasing a beta product tarnishes…

By: Bon

Bon — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 02:18:36 +0000

@Everton – Release Candidate isn’t a posh word for Beta, it’s what comes about when the beta period is amost complete!

By: Om Malik on Broadband : » Gtalkr, Web-Based GTalk Client

Om Malik on Broadband : » Gtalkr, Web-Based GTalk Client — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 07:08:27 +0000

[...] It can index conversations, and allows you as a user to search the conversations. (I am worried about my chats being stored on someone else’s server, but then I imagine rest of the IM services also do that on their servers.) You can also read short previews of your Gmail messages as well. You can invite your Gmail contacts by clicking on the “Add or invite a friend to Gtalkr” link. You can drag and drop the names from your contact list. (This is the list of people who have emailed your Gmail account.) For windows users, they also have a Gtalkr notifier. Mac version is in the works. Other nagging aspect of the service – no support for smiley faces, or you cannot import your photo/icon. (The icon image import is working now, even on Safari.) But then they are in beta! [...]

By: Jason Nottingham

Jason Nottingham — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 23:41:20 +0000

According to their logo, Flickr is still in beta.

By: David

David — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 23:26:41 +0000

I like the fact that you use Shizzle :)!

By: Piers Fawkes

Piers Fawkes — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 22:15:53 +0000

I don’t know if this interests you. A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post on PSFK called ‘Google’s Betas : The Emperor’s New Clothes’ – it got some praise and also got some stick. I argued that a continuous churn of products at beta level does nothing to ensure an emotional attachment between consumer and brand.
http://www.psfk.com/2005/09/googles_betas_t.html

By: Everton

Everton — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 21:50:34 +0000

I have to agree with you OM – I used to love being a part of beta programmes. Now, nearly every service I use is in ‘Beta’ or ‘Release Candidate’ – the latest posh way of saying beta!

I think another problem I’ve spotted is that, yes there are lots of cool services emerging, but are they really services that the mass market will want? I have a sneaky suspicion that what it is the same core group of users who are all registering for the same services, reading each others blogs etc etc
http://www.connectedinternet.co.uk/blog/_archives/2005/11/26/1422498.html

By: C. Enrique Ortiz

C. Enrique Ortiz — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 21:23:47 +0000

Who cares! I don’t…. Create, finish the product and put it out… Let people start using it and provide feedback. No need to wait and hold off – have no fear, don’t worry, get it to market sooner rather than later.

ceo

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 21:17:48 +0000

really, funny how they did not make many changes to their products for the longest time. oh well…

By: Zoli Erdos

Zoli Erdos — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 21:08:23 +0000

of=off :-)

By: Zoli Erdos

Zoli Erdos — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 21:07:44 +0000

OM, please, Flickr may have been "shizzle from early on" but it definitely had a looong beta period, in fact they only took of the “beta” label after the Yahoo acquisition. Otherwise, I’m all with you in being a bit sick of “everything beta”.

By: Interesting

Interesting — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 20:52:54 +0000

This was an interesting thought when someone else had it over a year and a half ago:

http://www.37signals.com/svn/archives/000690.php