There's a simply marvellous article over on CNET by Caroline McCarthy taking the Web 2.0 crowd to task for clinging to Beta status in an effort to excuse shonky features.
"You've probably come to rely on those four little letters, positioned snugly next to your site's cerulean-and-pink logo. To you, it's a reassurance. It means it's OK if the photo upload tool occasionally times out, if the YouTube embed codes aren't quite working yet, if the Google Maps mashups sometimes display Saskatchewan instead of San Francisco."
Just read it. Especially if you're running a Web 2.0 company...