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Gmail Marks Five Years In Beta

Posted by timothy on from the total-up-5-years-of-unread-messages dept.

TrekkieTechie writes "Though in fact the big day was April 1st, Google celebrated the five-year anniversary of the popular online email service Gmail with a post on the service's blog, saying 'we want to give a big thank you to all of you who use Gmail every day, to those who've been around since the beginning, to those who were using an AJAX app before the term AJAX was popular, to those who started chatting right in your email ... we couldn't have gotten here without you.' The milestone has also prompted speculation about when, if ever, Gmail will lose its beta status, and Ars Technica recently sat down with Todd Jackson, Gmail's Project Manager, to discuss the reasoning behind that nagging beta label."

17 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Humanity is still in Beta and most people don't seem to mind that.

  2. What a coincidence... by VinylRecords · · Score: 5, Funny

    This also marks the five year anniversary of me not using HotMail or Outlook Express.

    1. Re:What a coincidence... by robot_love · · Score: 4, Funny

      I read that as "Wordpress made me abandon monogamy".

      I thought, "I must look into this 'Wordpress'".

      --
      .there is enough of everything for everyone.
    2. Re:What a coincidence... by spyrochaete · · Score: 2, Funny

      Something tells me you don't practise what you preach in your Slashdot sig!

  3. Re:Gmail is a sandbox by Thanshin · · Score: 3, Funny

    it being beta has a function.

    f()?

  4. oh noes by jessica_alba · · Score: 2, Funny

    they know i have erectile-dysfunction and am also insecure about my bust size, and on a more dubious note, I am most likely personally responsible for all Nigerian immigration to the US. Oh yeah, I also get mail from the future...wait a second, I'm thinking about my old yahoo mail account. seriously though, how much energy is wasted hosting my personal collection of over 100,000 unread spam emails.

  5. Re:Gmail is a sandbox by Thanshin · · Score: 4, Funny

    f()?

    crap.

    P.S.: f() -> f(Greek small letter beta) ...

    I'll go back to my cave.

  6. Re:Why? by codeButcher · · Score: 4, Funny

    Humanity is still in Beta

    ... and that is probably flattering yourself.

    --
    Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
  7. Re:Tag by Starayo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hey! I'm going to finish it one day!

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  8. Re:Beta? by palegray.net · · Score: 5, Funny

    Look, I keep trying to explain this, but nobody wants to listen to reason. Google's engineering population contains a high percentile of gamers, and they're not taking Gmail out of beta until Duke Nukem Forever is released. Geez, it's the second Slashdot story today I've had to comment in to point out these obvious parallels to the sinister ties between extreme gaming and our everyday lives.

    --
    512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
  9. Re:Why? by taragui · · Score: 2, Funny

    Only some of them. Most (at least judging from the general level of comments here in Slashdot) are Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons.

    Perhaps GMail is glad it's a Beta, because Alphas work too hard?

    --
    Jesus saves. Real gods just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the rest of the deities mirror it
  10. Re:Why? by Darth_brooks · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is that why so many "Alpha Male" types are knuckle dragging meat heads?

    --
    There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
  11. Re:Earliest adopter? (outside Google) by u38cg · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, but I could beat you with a stick made of pure solidified smugness. How's that for ya?

    --
    [FUCK BETA]
  12. Re:Hackers. by koterica · · Score: 1, Funny

    This is from Jurassic Park. I know this!

  13. Re:Beta? by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe Gmail 1.0 is sort of like Warp 10--something that can never actually be reached. By the time it ends, it will be up to Beta release version 0.99999997

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  14. Re:Beta is meaningless by alpayerturkmen · · Score: 2, Funny

    The reason is very simple: a site should be constantly working to improve and change.

    No all sites can improve. http://www.endoftheinternet.com/

    --
    Alpay Curious...
  15. Re:Beta? by darjen · · Score: 2, Funny

    you actually sat there for hours watching a white screen? I hope you had munchies.