Gil Penchina, the new CEO of Wikia, compared Google favorably to his former employer, eBay, this morning at the Always On Stanford Summit conference. During a panel discussion on how best to create contagious consumer behavior, an audience member asked about the role beta testing plays in that process.

Penchina, who used to be the general manager of eBay in the U.S., lauded Google as a great example of a company that releases products and services before they are completely ready. He implied that that strategy can lead to a big consumer uptake of the service.

In contrast, he said eBay "was a little more lock down." He noted the online auctioneer never released a beta project. Despite that, he said it's possible to experiment with early-stage products but it's a risk because the press and customers sometimes won't let you. He concluded, "You have to fight pretty hard to do it."

That's not a problem for Penchina at Wikia, which as an online wiki community, is an constant work in progress.

For more on the Always On conference, see:
JD Lasica
Netanel Jacobsson
Always On webcast

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