Term of the week: Beta testing

As in

…the program’s still in “beta.”

By Derek Gehl

In the interview I did with Nicole Ephgrave about Yahoo’s new “pay-per-action” program, we talked briefly about how the program’s still in “beta.”

That means the program has been released to a limited number of users, but is still being tweaked and improved by the company as those users report any difficulties they encounter while using it.

Software programs can stay in the “beta” stage for months or even years, depending on how many problems — or “bugs” — the users encounter and how long those problems take to fix.

Once the developers have fixed all the reported bugs, the software is considered “stable” and then is released to the general public.

It’s definitely worthwhile to try a program you’re interested in — like Google’s pay-per-action program — even when it’s in the beta stage. By the time it goes “beta” it’s very close to being ready for a full launch.

Plus, not only do you get to help developers perfect the program — YOU get the chance to master the program and figure out how to take maximum advantage of it before your competitors get their hands on it!