Comments on: The NeverEnding Beta (Google, 2004)

By: big_D

big_D — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:43:02 +0000

For me, Beta means that a product is not ready for general public consumption – and corporates think the same. Google products will not really be accepted by major companies, all the time the products have the Beta attached to the name.

Chrome and Android will have to come out of Beta status if they are to be taken seriously.

By: Corydoras

Corydoras — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:57:28 +0000

Terms like this don?t change their meaning spontaneously – marketing departments debase them.

The word “broadband” is a case in point.

By: Jobby

Jobby — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:51:02 +0000

What’s wrong with The Emperor’s New Groove? It’s an awesome film!

“Pull the lever, Kronk! Wrong lever! Why do we even have that lever?”

Classic. Absolutely fantastic! )

By: Noghar

Noghar — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:22:52 +0000

It’s an all-purpose cop-out like ‘may contain nuts’. If the app crashes losing all your data they can shrug and say it was only a beta version.

OTOH I am reminded of Disney’s policy of calling every film they released ‘A New Disney Classic’ knowing that news programs would parrot the phrase and make people think the latest Disney movie was worth seeing when in fact it was Pocahontas or The Emperor’s New Groove.

Terms like this don’t change their meaning spontaneously – marketing departments debase them.

By: c6ten

c6ten — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:02:18 +0000

I got into a fruitless exchange with the Wall Street Journal’s tech columnist over the meaning of ‘beta’. Apparently it’s “meaning has changed over the years”. I was unable to ascertain what it exactly now is supposed to mean, but apparently it doesn’t mean what you think it means, whatever that is. It seems the term has been hijacked from it’s original technological roots and is now just a marketing slogan. C’est la vie.