Slashdot Mirror
Google Apps Leave Beta
Today Google announced that they're removing the "beta" label from Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk. They said, "We've come to appreciate that the beta tag just doesn't fit for large enterprises that aren't keen to run their business on software that sounds like it's still in the trial phase." Quoting the NYTimes:
"'Obviously we haven't had a consistent set of policies or definitions around beta,' said Matt Glotzbach, a director of product management at Google. Mr. Glotzbach said that different teams at Google had different criteria for what beta meant, and that Google felt a need to standardize those. ... Practically speaking, the change will mean precious little to Gmail's millions of users. But it could help Google's efforts to get the paid version of its package of applications, which includes Gmail, Calendar, Docs and other products, adopted inside big companies."
I haven't been this surprised since Amazon turned a profit.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
This is just great. Google Mail is finally out of Beta. Duke Nukem Forever is cancelled. If finally there is a year of Linux on the Desktop, only an unfinished GNU Hurd stands between us and the Apocalypse... ;-)
They have always had a definition.
The problem was that it was just a beta version. They'll be unveiling the 'Release' definition shortly.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
Makes you check calendar to see if it's April's Fool, doesn't it?
They've give you the option to put your own version of Gmail back into beta, you know, if you're into that sort of thing:
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/gmail-leaves-beta-launches-back-to-beta.html
Yeah, and I didn't even have to use my AK!
Just because you sold your soul to the devil that needn't make you a teetotaler. --The Devil and Daniel Webster
I expect GNU Hurd by the end of the week.
Funny may not give karma, but +5 Informative never made anyone snort coffee out their nose.
Yes, but with my Google Calendar being in Beta status (up until now) I wouldn't have been able to trust it!
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it dissolve.
The bad news: they're all entering 'Gamma'
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
a black president? are you serious? his mom looks really white to me: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e5/Ann_Dunham_with_father_and_children_(enhanced).jpg racist comments such as yours prove to me that america is still not ready for a black president.
Thanks for sharing your opinion, Sergey.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
But the press release says they lifted the beta term for marketing reasons, meaning no new standard of functionality or reliability has been met. So as far as anyone knows, they will always be beta. Their PR certainly still is. They should have made some visual changes to denote a significant upgrade. I guess their spin department is still in alpha.
War as we knew it was obsolete
Nothing could beat complete denial
- Emily Haines