Fact: Google has killed the concept of a “beta”.
When Google leaves high-profile services in beta for months and even years, beta becomes something else other than a short trial period in which users are encouraged to provide feedback so a product/service can be improved before it’s officially released.
Fact: Flock should have single-handedly killed the concept of “alpha” after it decided to unveil a much-hyped but sadly under-baked browser. It was a public relations nightmare that Flock has arguably never fully recovered from. Anyone with knowledge of Flock’s alpha troubles should have put it on the list of things not to do if you’re a start-up.
You figure given these realities, startups would be careful about using “beta” and “alpha”, particularly at a time when there is more focus than ever on having a fully-baked service that generates revenue.
So, it was surprised to come across a startup called my6sense.
Billing itself as a service offering “digital intuition”, my6sense has received some pretty solid coverage (Roi Carthy, ReadWriteWeb) within the blogosphere, which has likely encouraged lots of people to check it out.
If visit my6sense, there an invitation to “Join the Alpha”. That’s a mistake.
Sure, it may be a marketing ploy if the service has been de-bugged already and works well. But the last thing I’d want to do give people the initial impression that my product isn’t fully baked yet.
In other words, why use alpha when it’s not necessary. If the product isn’t ready, wait until it goes beta before you release it publicly. If it’s ready, then use “beta”.
This may be a question of semantic but on the Web, you only get one chance to make a solid first impression. Why blow it up not being ready for prime time or trying to manipulate expectations.
Technorati Tags: my6sense, alpha, flock, google
Hi Mark – the core service of my6sense IS working. We opened up a small alpha a month ago to close friends and family members to tap away, and just extended that now to have 1000+ heavy RSS users hit it to push the system even more.
There is always the possibility that inviting people into an alpha risks losing some of the folks early on. There is also the possibility of finding people who are passionate about what the service is working to do that they are willing to overlook the ‘alpha’ part and we all benefit from that.
There are some bugs to be fixed, some tweaks to the UI needed and we absolutely need to provide a better ‘out of the box’ experience as right now it does take a couple days of use to build the intuition piece. But, unlike Flock (I was one of the early testers for them), I am seeing more positive than negative so I think we are on the right track with the alpha. I do need to develop some product demos and documentation though – so will quit filling up your comment section and go finish that.
Appreciate your feedback and I guess only time will tell if this while alpha thing was a good thing, but I think it is.
Kristie,
So, I guess the question is why do a public alpha rather than continue testing with friends, family and a small test group?
While you can get a lot of feedback (negative and positive) with a public alpha, my concern is the risk of disappointing people with something with bugs and in need of UI tweaks.
That said, it appear that my6sense has received some good response so far. I’m looking forward to trying it out.
Mark
Set Goals or DIE! Part 2: Traffic Goals | There's a Blog in my Soup!
[...] Alpha is a Dumb Idea [...]
As long as the current state of development of a given project is clearly stated to a potential alpha or beta user, I believe releasing pre-marketable versions provides startups/dev teams with valuable information while providing the public with a sneak peek at a new product.
Anyone who chooses to build anything on an alpha will reap what s/he deserves. Alpha and beta tags are disclaimers to alert potential users of the status of a product’s development. I have no sympathy for those that ignore these warnings.
The term “Beta” has been misused to the point where it’s come to mean something completely different from its original use.
A “Beta” was originally meant to mean the point where developers had done enough testing and were ready to do a limited (or perhaps public) release to identify and fix bugs. Beta software used to be feature complete (heck, even Alpha software is supposed to be feature complete) so the current usage of Beta does not match with this historical context. Typically, nowadays, we see web applications launch with the “Beta” moniker, only to see new features added fairly frequently.
However, I’ll be the first to admit that language evolves. Especially in the world of web applications, where it’s easier to push out a new version, the terms ‘Beta’ and ‘Alpha’ will not have their original meaning. I’m as guilty as anyone of helping perpetuate this transformation, so I believe it’s best just to understand the differences, and move on.