Why are you crying over ‘beta’ in Google products?

They indicated that some of notable products which are stim in beta are Google Docs, Google Gmail and Google Finance. They have even raised objection to Google charging its clients on Beta products.

Google has responded to this by indicating that –  “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.”

Frankly as a user of Google Apps and other Google products it does not matter to me whether there is a “Beta” tag or not. And why it should? I am looking for some level of performance and if I am getting it – whether “Beta” or No beta – it does not bothers me.

And to the question of paying for a “beta” product – is there a regulation which prohibits companies for charing beta products. Let the market decide if they want to pay for something. In a free market where competitive offerings are available in market let the users decide what they want to buy or not. If I am getting a superior offering – I am ready to buy it and whether it is “beta” or not doen not matter to me.

I am sure most of my readers agree!