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Information Technology News Is Google hiding behind beta products to limit liability?
Information Technology News Is Google hiding behind beta products to limit liability? | Is Google hiding behind beta products to limit liability? |
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| by Davey Winder | |
| Saturday, 27 September 2008 | |
  
A beta product is, by definition, one that is a prototype, one that is nearly complete, one that isn't quite ready for the big time. Or, at least, that is the definition that most people would apply to the term. But not, it seems, Google. Featured Whitepaper
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Google is always proud to boast of how it attracts the best developers on the planet, yet they cannot actually complete a major project some four years after the beta came out. The alternative viewpoint would be, of course, that because it is a beta product then Gmail is not quite ready for the big time, it is not a finished product at all. Yet if that is the case then why have it right up there as a major part of your product portfolio? But it is not just Gmail, one reporter dug deep into the Google product line and discovered that of the 49 available a stonking 22, or 45 percent, were still in beta. That is without counting the stuff that can be found in the Google Labs, which you might argue are either the real beta products or almost by definition the Google alpha line. Roll those into the statistics and the number rises to 57 percent. While I can understand the likes of Chrome being in beta, you really do have to dig into the depths of reason to come up with any logical argument for Gmail or Orkut still to remain as such. Orkut, for the record, is an even older beta that Gmail by a couple of months. Google itself has argued that "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." Which kind of suggests that what Google has done here is give itself a liability get out clause, passing the responsibility buck when things go pear shaped. After all, when a security hole appears in a product it is a to be expected bit of beta development updating rather than a serious bug fix in a finished application. If Gmail goes down, if Gmail swallows your archive, if Gmail screws up big time then guess what? It ain't a Google problem, in fact you are the jerk for using a beta product to handle important stuff. Can you see the logic here? If you can think of a better reason why the mighty Google cannot, it seems, finish products in a reasonable timeframe, then do please let us know. |
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