Friday, March 16, 2007

Irritation du jour

It started with Google sticking "Beta" next to the names of its services - which was at best a bad joke (everyone's using Gmail, but it's beta?) or a warning ("Millions rely on us, but we're not really gonna support it.")

Then everyone started doing it, perhaps hoping they'd have a Googlicious IPO as a results - Alpha and Beta started popping up on web banners everwhere.

Just now I visited a web site and next to its name was the word "Gamma."

Just stop it, okay? "Alpha" and "Beta" mean something, even when Google is abusing the words. But this has just gotten silly. Whenever I see one of these labels, I think, "They think they are really cool, but that their service isn't ready for prime time."

This is not a good thing.

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