beta culture 2.0

Part 1 here: An Introduction to Beta Culture.
Below are seven services and products that Google is currently field testing. Feel free to ask me any questions or share something else in the comments below - with all these new features popping up, it's hard to keep track of them all!

1) The New Gmail Layout

Click to enlarge.

This feature's probably going to rolled out soon, following the remodelling of Google's home page. The layout appears more spacious, features the-red and-black text side bar, and the new look to their buttons. Two interesting things to note: the function bar (Archive / Spam / Delete) floats, so it is always on the page even when you skim downwards. Also, the ads are now floating on the bottom. How do you enable the new layout? Well, you might see a link at the top right corner ("Preview Gmail's New Look"), but if you don't, simply go to Gmail Settings, click on the themes tab, and pick Preview or Preview (dense). Personally, I prefer the latter.

2) Google+
Google's "social layer", which has been described as a rather competent alternative to Facebook. It's centered around circles, a method of grouping your friends and mimicking the communities of real life interactions. Notable features include Hangouts, featuring video chat for up to 10 people, Sparks, to keep track of topics of interest, and a Following feature very similar to Twitter. The layout is very clean, and it's notifications are integrated with other Google services. Google seems to be making it easier and easier to get signed up - sometimes you can simply sign in with your account at plus.google.com, but you can still ask for an invite from your friends or from me, at ay.savethetigers@gmail.com.

Screenshot, with most personal data removed =). 

Google stays up to date with memes.

3) Youtube's Cosmic Panda
Cosmic Panda is the revamp for Youtube's site, although it doesn't seem as streamlined with the other Google sites. Like Google+, the page layout is very clean, and they've opted for a darker background to help the video stand out more. It's not hard to try this one out, just go to www.youtube.com/cosmicpanda.

4) Google Music Beta

This service is the Chocolate Factory's response to cloud music - hosting your music files on the web. There are some conveniences to this: you can access your playlists anywhere with an internet connection, i.e. at work or at a school computer, and also on your phone, so you don't have to physically transfer any files or even occupy your disk space. Unfortunately, this could drain your internet usage if you've got a cap (like, for almost all Canadians), but services like this are bound to become more popular in the future. Google's Music Player is completely web based, allows you to upload 20 000 files, and also has the feature of auto-generating playlists to match a specific song. You can request an invitation at music.google.com and (from my experience) you'll get in invite in days, but there's a big limit on this one: you must be in the United States. 

5) Blogger (Draft mode)

In keeping a blogging theme, Google has placed their upcoming version of Blogger at draft.blogger.com. Again, the layout is a lot cleaner, featuring the light gray header bar and a white background with spaced out links. The now familiar side bar with links in red and black text streamlines all of the Blogger tabs, and the post editor is much nicer as well. A downside: it's not perfect yet, and after running into a few display issues, I'm back on the old version of blogger (Update: problem found - there were some glitches with draft blogger and chrome canary). You can easily switch between the two depending on whether you log in through draft.blogger.com or blogger.com.

6) Google Chrome Canary
Hopefully, you're familiar with Google Chrome, Google's internet browser. The browser maintains speedy automatic updates, with larger updates every six weeks. Currently, the public release is Version 12, but you can fast track by trying other versions which are freely available for download. Chrome Beta allows you to use a pre-release version (currently Version 13), while Chrome Canary, intended for developers, is at Version 14. You'll get more test features on the about:flags page, and you'll try out key features earlier than other Chrome users. As you can see from the screenshots, you can even hide the url bar (not always ideal, of course). If you're really intense, you can try Chromium, but I'll leave that for the real developers.

7) Chrome OS

This last section is more of an update on my previous post on the Cr-48 prototype from Google, a notebook (or "chromebook") with an operating system based on Google Chrome. It's very easy to use and has become my primary computer for regular 'net surfing. The fast start up, speedy shut down, and frequent updates are comforting, and I've also noticed that it stays relatively cool. Minor problems include a rather weak processor (though it's better in the final models than the prototype), not-so-great speakers, and no delete key (alt+backspace does the trick), but hey - there's no complaining when you're given a free computer. Unfortunately, there aren't really any more opportunities to find a Cr-48, but Samsung and Acer have already started selling Chromebooks in the United States and in select countries in Europe, though a bit pricy. You can expect to have more models in more countries in the coming months, and hopefully with a lower pricetag.

Final word: if you're in for a fun read, see the Chromebook's Safety Guidelines, via Gizmodo since I'm too lazy to scan it myself.

beta culture 1.0

Beta culture. When I hear the word "culture", I no longer think of tradition and heritage - I think of the flasks and vats of E. coli and the smell of LB. "Beta"'s just a part of nomenclature, like DNA pol β or beta-galactosidase. Put the words together, and you get a phrase that defines one of the most influential companies in the world - Google.

Forget "don't be evil", that's more of a guideline or rule telling the company what not to do. When it comes to actually doing things, Google approaches problems with its "beta culture", unveiling a service or function to the public well before it is polished. This method is a huge contrast from Apple, which tends to fine tune their product to exact qualifications, before launching the next glorified iThing to endless lines wrapping around the Apple Store. Each philosophy has its pros and cons of course, and varied success.

A good example of Google's "beta culture" is Android, the company's mobile operating system. When Android debuted two and a half years ago, it was slow and buggy with few adopters. Few people want a phone that sometimes struggles with even basic tasks with an unpolished finish, but the early adopters were rewarded with a rapidly improving Android environment that would respond to user demand - engineers would look at both stats and feedback to determine the problems that needed to be fixed, and the features most desired. It's like raw denim - the software, though rough at first, eventually adapts to fit the user and more and more. Android is now the top mobile operating systems worldwide, and is expected to have a smartphone market share of nearly 50% by sometime next year.

When Google tries to optimize its search result page, they test it out first with small subsets of their users. This system includes using dozens of slight variants of blue on their results, or offering more than 10 results for certain users. They keep track of time spent on each page and advertisements clicked, and try to reduce the amount of time it takes to find a result while attempting to maximize ad revenue. The "beta culture" reminds me of natural selection: create multiple variations of a product (or a rapidly variable product) and see which ones are most successful over time.

Several of Google's major product debuts start out by invitation only, like Gmail, Google Wave, and the newly released Google+. These allow a smaller circle of users to give feedback and an opportunity for engineers to iron out the bugs before opening up their services to the general public.

Google also allows its users to test up and coming features through "Labs", available for services like Gmail and Google Maps. The most popular and successful labs are often incorporated as standard features, such as its forgotten attachment notifier. Use Google Chrome? Type in "about:flags" and see what interesting features you can enable.

"Beta culture" takes some getting used to - it's not always easy using beta-products all the time. I once had the formatting on an assignment (with lots of graphics) completely ruined when testing out Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office with a lousy internet connection. The media often calls Google products "half-baked", and well, it's true. But when cooking, I like to taste test along the way (assuming it's safe to eat) so I can customize the food to my tastes.

Perhaps it's the cool and not-yet-public features that keep me embraced with the beta track. I'm currently typing away on my Chromebook on the draft version of Blogger, listening to the Beatles via Music Beta, and occasionally checking Google+. I'll give each of these products (and a few more) a quick run down in part two of this post, and instructions on how you can test them out yourself!