The question has been kicked around by the technology press for some time now: Why does Google keep products in beta for so long?
Beats me, but I'm trying to find out today because the Web monitoring company Pingdom has taken the time to quantify the matter: Pingdom's count shows that almost half of Google's 49 products are in beta, including such established stalwarts as Gmail -- released in April 2004 -- and Google Docs. (Pingdom intentionally left Google Labs out of the mix.)
"Everyone knows Google is fond of the beta label on its products, but we wanted some actual numbers so went through all of Google's products to see how many of them are in beta," Pingdom analyst Peter Alguacil tells me in an e-mail. "It turned out to be a whopping 45%. As far as we know, there is no other company that does this to the extent that Google does."
(Update: Google reply below.)
From Pingdom's blog post:
Some products you can understand why they are in beta, like Knol, Google Alerts, Custom Search, Google Chrome, etc. However, a lot of products that you wouldn't really expect are still labeled as beta.
Here are a few notable Google products that are still in beta: Gmail, Google Docs, Orkut, and Google Finance.
We're so used to seeing the little "beta" tag next to the various Google product logos that we almost don't register it anymore. We even had to double-check that Gmail really still was in beta.
As for early reaction to Pingdom's Google beta count, Vasanth Sridharan of the Silicon Alley Insider writes: "Interesting find, but probably doesn't matter -- Google's 'beta' products like Gmail and Google Docs are about as good as anyone would expect."
I've sent a few questions to Google about all of this. Will be enlightening to see what they have to say.
While we wait, if any of you should have a theory of your own, please share with the group.
(Update: Google public relations tells me that they're trying to get answers to my questions, so that's a good start.)
(Update, 9:15 p.m.: According to a Google spokesman: "We have very high internal metrics our consumer products have to meet before coming out of beta. Our teams continue to work to improve these products and provide users with an even better experience. We believe beta has a different meaning when applied to applications on the Web, where people expect continual improvements in a product. On the Web, you don't have to wait for the next version to be on the shelf or an update to become available. Improvements are rolled out as they're developed. Rather than the packaged, stagnant software of decades past, we're moving to a world of regular updates and constant feature refinement where applications live in the cloud.")
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Avoid the responsibility
Isn't this a great idea: whenever something goes wrong, you claim you're still in beta. Problem solved.
Amazon does the same thing.
Amazon does the same thing. Mechanical Turk has been in beta for 3 years. This allows you to put out crap updates and explain the issues away as a "beta" experience. You'd think that gmail would be stable enough to move out of beta. Nothing else sticks out as stable enough.
I also have thought exactly
I also have thought exactly this. Google first and foremost has lost a lot of momentum throughout the last couple of years. Sure they just released an opensource mobile OS(beta?) and a new browser in which it is safe to say was a poor attempt at entering the browser market(2 years in the making and they release something with security issues galore).
The beta tag might be something that diverts responsibility but it also tarnishes the view of the company from an enterprise standpoint. Businesses look for stability and functionality when choosing their products to implement. For instance, the concept of Google Docs is there but the feature set and the beta name is a joke at an enterprise level.
you're an idiot
>>>Google first and foremost has lost a lot of momentum throughout the last couple of years. >>>
You identified yourself as a complete idiot in just 2 sentences. Nice work.
Wow and you are a real jerk
Wow and you are a real jerk for saying that. The poster said a valid point. Whats your besides badmouthing somebody?
Don't feed the trolls.
Don't feed the trolls.
The point is -
he problably works for Google. That is how typical children act, and, Google more or less hires children (in a social sense).
Ever try to SPEAK to an Google "engineer"? You'll get a better conversation from a wet soap dish.
...but not as much of an idiot are you are.
You identified yourself as a complete idiot in just one sentence. Even better work!
">>>Google first and
">>>Google first and foremost has lost a lot of momentum throughout the last couple of years. >>>
You identified yourself as a complete idiot in just 2 sentences. Nice work."
This is deliciously ironic.
>>>">>>Google first and
>>>">>>Google first and foremost has lost a lot of momentum throughout the last couple of years. >>>
>>You identified yourself as a complete idiot in just 2 sentences. Nice work."
>This is deliciously ironic.
What a passive-agressive idiot!