Alpha, Beta Soup. What Does an App’s Status Mean to You?
03/11/2008, 5 months 3 weeks ago
I read Marshall Kirkpatrick's Twine review as well as Nova Spivack's response today, and realized that there is often a huge disconnect between what developers feel is a product's readiness state, and the general public's, even when it comes to those writing about tech.
I'm still a software developer at heart, and the ubiquitous Web 2.0 Beta sticker seems to have dulled the perception of what state an application is really in, resulting in a lot of disappointed users and frustrated developers. I try very hard to be fair when I'm reviewing an application. Beta to me still means “work in progress” and “retooling with your feedback.” I'm just giving my feedback publicly.
Web 2.0 moves at such a breakneck pace that more and more apps come out before they are really ready for primetime. Whereas when I was doing development, alphas and betas were limited to a very select group of users while we worked out bugs, and nothing was deployed until it was in a complete and functional state, in this current environment, the first company launched is often the one that wins and keeps the user base. As a result, we are inundated with apps launching every day in various stages of development.
I'm currently one of the participants in the Twine beta. I haven't even started to review it because it isn't your typical Web 2.0 application where you log in, enter your data, and are up and running in less than 5 minutes. I expect that an application that's trying to do something different means I will be unfamiliar with how it works and what I can do with it. If it's a private beta, even more so.
By the same token, I was disappointed that Venture Beat referenced my review in the list of users who didn't like Socialthing. I never said I didn't like Socialthing. I did say I didn't like FriendFeed, but I think Socialthing has potential, once they iron out any scaling issues and add more services to the app. I didn't expect a finished product.
So for people who aren't developers, what do you expect out of an alpha? Do you not expect frequent hiccups, potential data losses, and application crashes? What about a private beta? Do you believe it's a fairly stable version but is still having features added and may still crash on occasion? Or has the beta tag just been so overused (I'm talking to you, Gmail) that it no longer means anything?
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It’s just another case of Web 2.0 bastardizing perfectly good words into something different. With GMail a beta for years and never losing an email, the term “beta” has raised the quality bar far above what would have been a beta in the past. Now “alpha” is being used for what traditionally would be a “beta” in the past… Like you said, real “alpha” level code shouldn’t see the light of day. Maybe someone didn’t get the memo about the new meanings and let real “alpha” code out the door.
I’m not a developer, persae, but I am the project manager for things in “beta” ect. I am also an end user for a lot of online apps. So, here is my feedback.
Alpha to me is a semi-functional preview. I usually do not look at alpha’s because they are not complete enough to get an idea of what the thing does. If I do look at an Alpha I usually do not go back to the site.
Beta to me is a site that has some polish and is useful. It may have some bugs and you live with those and help find them. I don’t mind using beta products.
What I do mind is products perpetually in beta- it get’s annoying.
On a side note: Cindy, I have really enjoyed your articles. You have help make Profy a number one stop for me along with TC and RWW. Keep up the great work!
@Grendel I’d argue that when you are testing an app, especially with bootstrapped 2.0 companies, you may speed up your development process (and save money in the long run) by letting actual users do your alpha testing. Use cases are all well and good, but a wide sampling of tech-savvy users can often come up with things outside any use case you can come up with, and you save money not having to employ an actual QA person. Jason Calcanis should add that to his “tips for start-ups.”
@Jason In some respects I think you are right when it comes to alpha releases, but as Grendel pointed out, the beta concept has been diluted to an extreme, rendering it almost meaningless. I laughed til I cried yesterday at FriendFeedFeed yesterday with its “pre-beta” status, because it’s become a joke; everything 2.0 is beta.
And thanks for the compliment; I think you actually made me blush.
Like Jason said though, you risk having the user not come back if you’re pushing an alpha quality product out there. “You never get a second chance to make a first impression” and all that.