Andrew Hyde lives in Boulder, Colorado and travels frequently.

You Are Better Than Beta

Startups make the mistake of wondering what lettering they should put next to their nice, clean, developed logo. “Are we Alpha or Beta or something else?” Lambda Lambda Lambda is my favorite logo ruining phrase. There is a rush to put Beta on everything on your site. While this grants no legal protection, and only the tech minded users you have really get what it means, startups feel the need to put it on (after they have used make my logo bigger creme of course).

Don’t do it. You are better than that.

Google did it with Gmail, I know. It worked really well for them too, but that doesn’t mean you should. Really, it was cool at the time, but please, please don’t.

Picture 4

If you or your team (yeah right, blame them! You have been using beta in your company pitch for the last six weeks.) must, describe what beta is. Here, is a fantastic example of how to do it, by Eons Travel.

Hover over the big old question mark next to that oh so familiar web 2.0 button, and the user is presented with an answer to their exact question (What is Beta) and even a link for feedback.

I wrote them to say how awesome they are. Well done.

Well done.

I feel like I am missing something with everyone labeling their products. It doesn’t help their design, or provide legal protection. It may show that your site still has a few bugs (warning, you might just see an error!).

Better error handling is needed, and a whole lot less beta.

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5 responses to “You Are Better Than Beta”

  1. Will Avatar
    Will

    As the ringleader behind wanting to put the Lambda, Lambda, Lambda label on HolaNeighbor, I take offense to your statement above about it being the ultimate logo ruining phase ;-). You have to admit, even you thought it was funny.

  2. Andrew Avatar
    Andrew

    @Will I really like Lambda, Lambda, Lambda, it might just go on the top of this blog

  3. curtis Avatar
    curtis

    I think putting a BETA statement on the logo started with Google… as if admitting to beta status meant you wouldn’t be expected to provide support if anything was amiss. We *used* to call this “pre-release” or “alpha”. Beta meant we had customers trying it out and we were constantly repairing errors. Odd that new launches want the lable though.

    Wonder how many of the startups you saw at CES labeled themselves beta? And, how many others were beta but didn’t flaunt it?? :^)

  4. Andrew Avatar
    Andrew

    @curtis No beta at the show. Tons of companies were talking about not yet released, but after going to 600+ booths, not one of them said ‘alpha’ or ‘beta.’

  5. Will Avatar
    Will

    @andrewhyde,
    If you do, that would make me very happy and make me laugh every time I see it 😉

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