Every software program has bugs because it's simply impossible to find them all without thousands of people testing it.
Microsoft was criticized in 1997 for delivering Windows 98 with so many bugs it wouldn't work on most computers. It wasn't until Windows 98 Service Pack 1 (Win98 SE1) that people started to adopt the system.
Today, it's a common strategy of software developers to cut costs by just sending software out into the market without heavy testing. The "market" is, of course, the world. They then sit back and wait for customers to report bugs (or complain) and software patches are offered daily.
How many times a day do you get an update pop-up from Microsoft or Adobe or Java? Ironically, just as this sentence was typed this computer popped up the message "Java Update Available." The computer is mocking us!
Web developers have a different strategy. They publish web applications with the "Beta" notice prominently displayed on every page. Usually, this is in the logo.
"Beta" is an easy way of disclaiming program stability, or accuracy. If the web application doesn't work, you can't complain about it because you assumed the risks by using a clearly marked, unfinished product.
Everything Google does seems to be in Beta. In August 2010, Google tested a secure version of Search and suddenly the logo on google.com said "Beta" again.
Okay, what's the point of today's Gold Nugget?
Last Friday, September 24, 2010 Google finally announced that the AdWords Keyword search tool was finally out of beta.
We find this pretty amazing. This implies that they feel their keyword research tool, which has been in beta since October 23, 2000, is as accurate as they can make it. That's 9 years and 11 months of beta testing.
What this means for you is that you can feel a little more secure that your SEO keyword research methods are accurate. Even though you still have to know how to interpret and use your keyword research, the Google Tool should not lead you down a dead end any more.
Try it out for yourself here: http://bit.ly/9wYsmb
