Beta Invite, Anyone?
Confession: I’m a beta junkie.
Any sniff of something even quasi-interesting being launched, and I’m signing up for the beta. If it’s one of those snooty private betas, you better believe that I’ll checking out InviteShare to get around the beta bouncer. Right now, my beta menu includes Hulu, fOTOGLIF, adroll and Testfreaks, while I’m still patiently waiting for invites from Kango and del.icio.us.
My biggest problem with betas, however, is most of the fun is the chase for an actual invitation. After I’ve been invited, it’s somewhat anti-climatic. It’s like waiting in a line outside of a cool bar, only to get in and discover it’s alright but not nearly as exciting as you were hoping.
The other thing is I’m a bad beta person. I like to dabble with new services but, for the most part, I’m moving on fairly quickly unless it’s compelling. In fact, if a service isn’t easy to use right away or requires time to get a handle on the features, I immediately get a case of the beta blues.
Even worse, I’m not one for providing suggestions or insight, which explains why I find extensive reviews done by blogs such as Read/WriteWeb so interesting (How can they spend so much time on a beta? And why do they feel it requires such a lengthy explanation?).
Still, betas are my online drug of choice. You offer me one, I’ll take you up on it. If you’re really lucky, I may even give you some feedback.
Technorati Tags: Beta
December 14th, 2007 at 11:05 am
I’m the same. How are you using Hulu? I received my invite last week but have yet to set it up with a US proxy to make it work.
December 14th, 2007 at 11:11 am
Yan: I haven’t tried to figure out the non-U.S. access issues yet. Hulu looks interesting, however. If you come up with a solution, let me know.
Mark
December 14th, 2007 at 11:36 am
Yan and Mark
I’ve tried visiting other geofenced sites by using an online proxy service called - are you ready for it?
hidemyass.com
It’s not pretty, but it works!
December 14th, 2007 at 11:46 am
Mike: Thanks!
December 14th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
How’s the speed like on that proxy? My concern is streaming video through a proxy will be a slow and choppy. Maybe the standard def stuff will be fine, but the HD probably won’t be any good.
Mark: Do you have a Pownce account. Let me know if you don’t.
December 14th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
We’re basically in Beta at LingQ.com… Come and dabble on our site, however briefly. You’ll still learn a little French or Spanish or whatever you’re interested in.
December 14th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Mark:
I’d love to learn more Spanish so I’ll check it out.
Mark
December 14th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Mark,
We are no longer in Beta, but newly released and adding new features every week.
Hope this satisfies your Beta cravings: http://www.cognopolis.com
Svet
December 18th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Mark,
Even though you are a “bad beta tester”
we will be getting a lot of Kango.com invites out there, so you should be getting yours this week. But if you don’t and you are still stuck on the waiting list, contact me and I’ll take care of it!