MoMB

Beta Quotient: Germany

Note: this list is rather outdated and more than 1000 apps have launched in Germany since. Please check the Germany 100 list for an updated version.

Pretty good news (from a betalogical point of view): more than 50% (60 of 101) of Web 2.0-ish applications from Germany are released in beta*:

• 25peeps
• amiamo*
• ask-deutschland*
• askcom-beta-challenge*
• audioclipping*
• aufeinander
• bagook*
• blauarbeit
• blinklife*
• blinklist*
• blogfox*
• calendarhub*
• camraoke
• deinfussball
• der-wunsch*
• deutsche-blogcharts
• dhd24
• dilemma5000
• dopcast*
• ehrensenf
• eventicus*
• exchangeme
• favoor*
• focus-online-live*
• fotouristen
• fruetel-blogsearch*
• germanblogs
• globeblogr*
• glueck-auf*
• golfplatzfinder
• google-buchsuche*
• google-news-deutschland*
• google-sms*
• hitflip
• icio.de*
• imagelooop*
• jobazaar*
• kochpiraten
• kulando*
• laberbrett
• laufrausch*
• leze
• loudblog
• lycos-iq*
• mabber*
• magnoto*
• mapits*
• meinask*
• meinprof
• miaplaza
• mindpicnic
• mister-wong
• musiclens
• oneview*
• openbc
• pageflakes*
• photocase*
• plazes*
• prangr
• preisfrage
• qwik*
• qype*
• readers-edition*
• readio*
• reliwa*
• romso-groups*
• rss-verzeichnis*
• schoenerbrausen*
• screencasting*
• seconds11
• sevenload*
• snapmania
• so-zeug
• spreadshirt
• studiverzeichnis*
• studylounge
• sucker*
• superweb*
• swabba*
• taggle*
• teamslide
• tvfeed
• typolis*
• upraize
• user-treff*
• watchmedoing*
• web20spot*
• web2null
• webde-lokale-suche*
• webde-produktsuche*
• webde-wikipedia-suche
• webmobs
• webride*
• weekendr
• who-are-you
• woopy*
• yahoo-clever*
• yahoo-lokale-suche*
• yahoo-suche-translator
• yigg
• zeec

(see the beta quotient for rails, connected innovators, apps inspired by flickr and apps inspired by digg)

Beta Quotient: Rails

Disastrous news (from a betalogical point of view): only 5% of up and coming applications running on Ruby on Rails are released in beta.

The Red Ferret Journal today lists The 20 Coolest Ruby Apps you’ve never heard of – only one of them is in beta*:

BillMonk
Big Cartel
ClickGrid
CommunityWalk
CrispyNews
Deep Quote
Guruza
Invitika*
Just Budget
Kenlet
LoanBack
Nativetext
oh, don’t forget
Open Web Letter
ProjectStat.us
Quimble
RSS:Forward
Scratch n Scribble
Sidewalk
SoapBX

Seems like the philosophy of 37signals does have some impact on the beta strategies of the Rails community.

(see the beta quotient for connected innovators, apps inspired by flickr and apps inspired by digg)

The Top 50 by Blog

The 50 most popular betas ranked by the authority of the productblog at Technorati.

1. flickr – Blog (11453)
2. del.icio.us – Blog (1887)
3. Google AdSense API – Blog (1279)
4. Tailrank – Blog (390)
5. Google Video – Blog (383)
6. Amigo – Blog (174)
7. Odeo – Blog (172)
8. Netvibes – Blog (156)
9. LibraryThing – Blog (152)
10. Yahoo! 360 – Blog (141)
11. coComment – Blog (113)
12. Squidoo – Blog (100)
13. edgeio – Blog (95)
14. vpod.tv – Blog (85)
15. Etsy – Blog (81)
16. Flock – Blog (77)
17. Fleck – Blog (77)
18. Ning – Blog (65)
19. Zooomr – Blog (64)
20. Shopify – Blog (64)
21. Dabble DB – Blog (62)
22. MyWeb – Blog (59)
23. claimID – Blog (53)
24. Sphere – Blog (50)
25. Podscope – Blog (47)
26. Plazes – Blog (46)
27. HEMiDEMi – Blog (38)
28. BlogBurst – Blog (36)
29. Remember the Milk – Blog (33)
30. Waxxi – Blog (26)
31. Fold – Blog (26)
32. Smarking – Blog (26)
33. Krugle – Blog (26)
34. Jellyfish – Blog (24)
35. RawSugar – Blog (23)
36. swicki – Blog (22)
37. Pingoat – Blog (21)
38. blog karde?li?i – Blog (21)
39. iBegin – Blog (20)
40. Qype* – Blog (20)
41. BlinkList – Blog (19)
42. News Alloy – Blog (17)
43. Zookoda – Blog (15)
44. TextPayMe – Blog (15)
45. green.tv – Blog (15)
46. CrowdStorm – Blog (12)
47. Podradio – Blog (10)
48. WidSets – Blog (10)
49. Qunu – Blog (10)
50. Plum – Blog (10)

(update: I’ve dropped the section and put the full list here)

World Cup Special

Italia

1. google-news-italia (56)
2. pensieri-parole (15)
3. askcom-italia (6)
4. yahoo-answers-italia (3)
5. oknotizie (2)
6. google-ricerca-libri (2)
7. socialdust-linko (1)

France

1. scoopeo (101)
2. yahoo-questionsreponses (25)
3. askcom-france (22)
4. lycos-iq-france (21)
5. debitcreditfr (14)
6. que-pasa (13)
7. navx (6)
8. wakoo (4)
9. skaaz (4)
10. yahoo-mon-web-20 (4)
11. google-recherche-de-livres (3)
12. yahoo-recherche-multilingue (0)

Germany

1. google-news-deutschland (141)
2. lycos-iq (80)
3. screencasting (63)
4. qype (62)
5. tvfeed (55)
6. ask-deutschland (54)
7. iciode (52)
8. reliwa (43)
9. readers-edition (41)
10. glueck-auf (37)
11. taggle (32)
12. yahoo-clever (31)
13. mymaps24 (20)
14. schoenerbrausende (19)
15. web20spotde (19)
16. bagook (19)
17. swabba (16)
18. sevenloadde (16)
19. kulando (16)
20. focus-online-live (14)
21. imagelooop (13)
22. germanblogs (12)
23. audioclipping (11)
24. webde-wikipediasuche (10)
25. oneview (10)

Beta Quotient: Connected Innovators

Fantastic news (from a betalogical point of view): about 83% of todays most innovative applications are released in beta*.

Michael Arrington hand picked 12 companies for the Connected Innovators program at Supernova 12, 10 of ‘em are in beta (or pre-beta):

Attensa
Ether* (zeta)
lifeio* (by invitation)
Netvibes*
PostApp* (private beta)
Protomobl* (beta later this month)
Sharpcast* (alpha)
Soonr*
StumbleUpon
Vpod.tv*
Webaroo*
ZiXXo*

(see the beta quotient for apps inspired by flickr and apps inspired by digg)

Beta Quotient: The Flickrs

Pretty disturbing news (from a betalogical point of view): only about 43% of applications whose naming scheme is inspired by flickr are released in beta*.

I’ve stumbled upon 79 sites, only 34 of ‘em are in beta:

associatr
awesomr*
backlinkr
bananr
bashr
beggr*
bettr
blogr*
browsr*
bubblr
calcr
certifyr*
clockr
delivr
depictr*
dregradr
dingr*
dumpr*
enablr*
extortr*
fastr
findr
flagr
flappr
flickr*
flickr mixr
flickreplacr
flickrpapr
flickratr
flyr
frappr*
gabbr*
glimmr
globeblogr*
gnickr
grabbr
grazr*
groupr*
gtalkr
hackr
idgettr
isolatr*
juploadr
kubrickr
labelr*
lickr
loadr
mappr*
matchr
notifyr
phixr*
phlickr
phrasr
photobloggr*
quickrflickr*
quickr pickr
redlettr*
rel8r
retrievr
selbr
similr
slickr
sonr*
soonr*
squishr*
splashr*
sprinklr
steakr*
stridr
tickr
trackbackr*
travelr
wankr*
we.b2.0.al.izr*
weekendr*
wickr*
wishlistr
wrickr
zooomr*

(see the beta quotient for apps inspired by digg)

beta males

(courtesy of Hugh MacLeod)

Unrelated but interesting, because the authors are drafting a somehow holistic notion of the concept beta: until June 29 you can cast your vote for a proposed manifesto titled The rise of beta – a new mindset? at ChangeThis.

Serendipity

I’ve added another section: Serendipity – which randomly lists 5 betas whenever you reload the page. Great for discovering or rediscovering betas.

World Wide Beta

Minor update: you now can browse the applications also by language

• chinese
• danish
• dutch
• french
• german
• hungarian
• italian
• japanese
• polish
• portugese
• spanish
• swedish

Structure and Interpretation of Beta Programs

flickr has gone out of beta and now is in Alpha… Beta… Gamma!

We’ve just released the big round of changes I mentioned last week: New Navigation, New Search, New and Improved Organizr, and the Person Menu. All of these improvements have been designed to help you navigate the site with less effort and organize your photos more efficiently.

Instead of explaining everything in minute detail, I’d much rather just step back and let you get started exploring the new Gamma site…

Beta Trends

The trend history of beta courtesy of Google Trends

Straight Outta Beta

I’ve added another section: out of beta. Here you’ll find all applications which have been listed here, but made their way out of beta (as of today that’s 25 or ~2%.)

The List of Lists Listing Web 2.0 Listing Lists

• Tracking Web 2.0 (Web Things Considered)
• Other Web 2.0 blogs/lists to visit (eConsultant)
• List of Web 2.0 Lists (Read/WriteWeb)
• A List of Web2.0 Lists (A Zulu in Silicon Valley)
• The List of Web 2.0 Lists (Listible!)
• lists lists lists web2.o lists lists lists (Library clips)
• Web 2.0 Directory and Lists! (Chrono Tron)
• Falkayn’s List of Web 2.0 Lists

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

Two minor updates:

• I’ve added another section last week: Most Anticipated – a list of applications which haven’t been publicly released yet ranked by the number of bookmarks there are already at del.icio.us – this list will be updated weekly.

• and there is a new tiny right-pointing double angle quotation mark at the bottom of the page of each application, which – when being clicked – should display the 10 most recent blogentries talking about this app according to Google Blogsearch. (I just was playing around with the fantastic Yahoo! User Interface Library so I might drop this feature soon.)

Google Humor

I don’t want to diss Google, with more than 70 Betas they’ve probably done more to promote and flourish beta culture than anyone else, but it really makes me sad to read David Weinberger’s chronicle of events of Google indiscriminately shutting down Google Circles – one of the better April Fools this year (the original screenshot is here).