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This snippet was taken from the Stack Overflow Blog, featured 29 February, 2024

Defining socially responsible AI: How we select partners

[…] Together with Stack's strong developer community and partnerships with the world’s leading AI providers, we strive to redefine the developer experience, fostering efficiency and collaboration through the power of community, best-in-class data, and AI experiences. Our mission is to set new standards with vetted, trusted, and accurate data that will be the foundation on which technology solutions are built and delivered to our users.

Among the buzzing sounds intended to flatter readers and draw positive attention to the announced partnership, one expression caught my eye–“best-in-class”. I did a little research, since it was the first time we had crossed paths, and I wasn't sure if there was a catch. It seems to suggest, where quality is concerned, this data should belong to the top tier. In addition, the superlative expression was subtly associated with the partnership. I found the following explanation on Gartner.com

Best-in-class is defined as the superior product within a category of hardware or software. It does not necessarily mean best product overall, however. For example, the best-in-class product in a low-priced category may be inferior to the best product on the market, which could sell for much more.

I am interested in knowing the history of “best-in-class”

Searching online, Etymonline comes up empty-handed, as do Merriam-Webster and Wiktionary. I understand that the phrase is derived from "first class" and "world class" but it seems to me that its usage is prevalent among the fields of technology. While we can talk about a world class athlete we don't say a best-in-class athlete or *they are (the) best-in-class. Am I mistaken?

The closest I came to finding anything worthy of interest was from the venerable Oxford English Dictionary. The only entry which had any relevance to the superlative best-in-class was “good class”. The limited OED version which is visible to non-subscribers, says: “… earliest evidence for good-class is from 1852,…”

Where and when did best-in-class first appear in print?

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    From the (breathless) context best-in-class sounds like an attention-grabbing version of 'most reliable'. It's (deliberately?) ambiguous though because, as you say, the 'class' the data stands out from is not made clear. As an adjective, best-in-class seems to promise much but could easily be offering much less. Originally used in advertising?
    – Dan
    Commented Mar 3 at 14:23
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    @Dan Yes, indeed. These are what advertisers call "weasel words": fine-sounding terms that can mean anything at all. So called because they permit the advertiser to "weasel" their way out of any plain statement of fact. Often used in claims like "the [car model] is unexcelled in its class"—meaning, if you think about it critically, that it's no better than anything else you could buy.
    – Robusto
    Commented Mar 3 at 15:12
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    best in class and also, best in show [dogs or horses or other animals (?)]. Best in class is a widely used term in IT, nothing wrong with it. I don't see how it would be related to good class. The term first class is widely used too as an adjective in casual conversation.
    – Lambie
    Commented Mar 3 at 15:38
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    I suppose when Good, Better, and Best became classes themselves…too much in the catalog. I always waited until I could afford Better, and my friend financed the Best, in electronics (IDK why); so we always ended up with the same thing at the same time, but hers was on the way out and mine was on the way in; it's relative. Technology, whatta ya gonna do? But this is interesting and, offhand, seems more tech marketing than tech or marketing alone. Good luck.
    – HippoSawrUs
    Commented Mar 3 at 16:26
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    BTW, when I hear "best-in-class gas mileage" (for example), I assume they're talking about an SUV or something that sucks up a lot of gas, usually; so connotations do vary, by field or whatever else.
    – HippoSawrUs
    Commented Mar 3 at 16:50

2 Answers 2

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The term best in class, like best in show, comes from contests and competitions.

Classes are categories in a show, and the best of the category wins best in class. Best in show is a grand prize. Here’s best in show from the OED:

best adjective, noun1, & adverb
P.4.h.i. Also with lower-case initials. Best in (also of) Show: the best of all entrants in a competition or show, spec. the dog judged best of the winners of the various classes at a dog show; the award or title given to such a winner.
[selected attestations, including the earliest]
1879   Belfast, 1st prize and Fox Terrier club medal for best in show. —Kennel Club Cal. & Stud Book vol. 6 76
1939   Be interested in pumpkins because the best-of-show will bring a prize of $10. —Zanesville (Ohio) Signal 30 September 12)
Source: Oxford English Dictionary (login required)

An early usage for best in class can be found in 1876’s Journal of Horticulture, Cottage Gardener and Country Gentlemen:

Pigeons were also a good show, the classes being numerous, with three prizes in each, but only two Pouters turned up in the two classes. In Carriers the first-prize Dun was prominent, and was a grand hen. Almond Tumblers first a capital hen, second cock, third too dark. Foreign Owls a good class; pen 912 particular good Blue, best in class but not noticed.

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    I don't have a library card nor a subscription to view the OED, so I cannot verify whether @Setavr's claim is true: “The earliest documented use found in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is from a 1958 article in the magazine Flight and Aircraft Engineer.” Is that true or another example of a ChatGPT hallucinations? I know your citation predates this but I was wondering if the OED does cite the hyphenated best-in-class version.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Mar 4 at 7:51
  • It should be emphasised that even though best in class is a perfectly informative and useful expression in the contexts in which the relevant classes are well defined, which are its conceptual home, it becomes a weasel term when used in the contexts in which there is no established specification of what the classes are.
    – jsw29
    Commented Mar 4 at 17:01
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    @Mari-LouA — I believe that’s a pure hallucination (I flagged that post as possible AI generated). The only reference I can find to best-in-class in the OED is in an attestation under the word foreign: “1992 Emulating industry’s ‘best-in-class’ was a foreign concept for many in the defense arena. —IndustryWeek 7 December 36/1” I will research the Flight and Aircraft Engineer publication.
    – Tinfoil Hat
    Commented Mar 4 at 23:53
  • @jsw29 — Yes, and not only what the classes are but also who the judges were that bestowed the award.
    – Tinfoil Hat
    Commented Mar 4 at 23:56
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I think the question and the other answer here are misunderstanding the usage. They're not trying to say the best-in-class data is the best data in absolute terms.

This is a marketing term. A product class is a group of products that are all substitutable by a consumer. That is, the consumer with a particular need could choose any of them, and if one isn't available, they'd choose the next one. Classes can be wider or narrower, such as a wide one of all laptops, including Windows laptops, Macbooks, and Chromebooks, or a narrow one like different brands of premium organic free-range AA eggs.

What this is saying is that there's some class of data-related products, and this is the best one in it. The fact they are saying 'best in class' instead of just 'best' implies they're not saying it's the best one in absolute terms.

This is a very common usage in business, especially business-to-business B2B, IT, consultancy, etc. The vast majority of time it's puffery, because they don't follow up whatever class they're referring to. But if you read very serious and well-researched product analyst reports, you'll see this term used everywhere.

My theory for the origin is J.D. Power. Google ngrams shows this term really exploding in use in the 80s and 90s, and that would align with when J. D. Power entered the American public consciousness from automotive ads. They wanted to be able to market many different cars as being the best, which is obviously not possible. So they broke cars into different, fairly granular classes, and then ranked those classes by various dimensions. Then brands produced all kinds of advertisements and marketing copy that used the term "best in class" for whatever car they were trying to sell.

Product management has a history going back to the 1930s, so I actually doubt the term is related to "best in show" and similar, other than the structural similarity.

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