Royal Pingdom ponders the meaning of beta in the Google-verse: things stay in beta more or less forever, and there are paid options for beta products (like Gmail). The question then arises: does "beta" for a Google product mean the same thing as "beta" has classically meant for software?

I don't think it does, and ultimately, I think it's kind of a slacker mechanism at Google. If the product is "beta", then our expectations for it are lower - based on the classic meaning of "beta". This lets them off the hook for lots of stuff. Of course, over time, it just manages to devalue the term - I wonder if they'll end up having to call things "alpha" after we all get used to the idea of "beta" as a product release level.

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