Web 2.0: Web of Beta
Apparently after doing some blogwalking today, I’ve come to realize that most (rephrase: every) of web 2.0 business is still on beta phase. Some of them are already launched for public but not a small amount of them are still caved on the infamous “closed-beta” (ugh, I hate that so much).
The standard arguments about this is of course the resource. They argue that they need to control the resource usage as strictly as possible so that the system isn’t overwhelmed by a sudden queries by many users at once (prone to happen if your site is on slashdot or digg). Some even said plainly that they are not ready to ‘expose’ their service to a wider audience as a full public launch.
Why? Why do they keep it in beta release? More ultimately, why do they still keep the service on a beta release when there are already hundreds and thousands of users are using it (like Gmail.com), and some even paid for it (like Flickr)?
According to Wikipedia, a beta release of a software (in this case, service) can be defined:
A beta version or beta release usually represents the first feature complete version of a computer program or other product, likely to be unstable but useful for internal demonstrations and previews to select customers.
Google co-founder Larry Page told the media that the beta, or test, stage for its products would last as long as its engineers expected to make major changes to them–a process that has already taken years, in some cases. “It’s kind of an arbitrary thing,” Page said. “We could take beta off all of our products tomorrow, and we wouldn’t actually have accomplished anything…If it’s on there for five years because we think we’re going to make major changes for five years, that’s fine. It’s really a messaging and branding thing.”
The very same stance isn’t taken by Gmail along but adapted throughout Google products such as Google News and Froogle (both have been in beta since 2002 if I’m not mistaken). The euphoria of a beta product doesn’t stop there, it continued on to the native web 2.0 web service such as newsvine, flickr, sphere, and so much more. Thank God del.icio.us isn’t on beta phase…
This in the end made many web 2.0 service isn’t fiable to be made a full-time business support for an offline business. Many are of course reliable but to me, even though “it’s really a messaging and branding thing”, they are not for business and here’s why:
- Beta is often used as excuse of the incapability on delivering a stable service. They might be delivering an extra-notch, extra-quality of service today, but they are not guaranteeing the same thing for tomorrow.
- They, the company, isn’t ready to handle a big surge of request of their service and fearing that their inability to deliver serivce as customers had hoped will undermine their credibility, they hold themselves on beta release
- They still wanted to add dozens of major features on the product before it launch as a full (not beta) product. This is a lame excuse of course (and used often by Google) because apparently you can add major features to the service even after you fully launched it (like what Yahoo did with their Yahoo mail
- Low self-esteem… worth a long shot
- I can’t emphasize enough on my first point here so I emphasize it again. Beta release will put users at their mercy. When the company failed to deliver performance, users can’t complain much. When the company decided to shut down the service, you got no option. period.
You have an example of web 2.0 business that’s not in beta? Please post it here and let us know.
