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Google Apps Leave Beta

Posted by Soulskill on from the why-so-soon dept.

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."

4 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. 100 million by necro81 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Gmail has 100 million users and has been around over five years. Apps has 1.75 million. So, yes, about damn time.

  2. Re:Beta by eldaria · · Score: 4, Informative

    I have used the premium Google apps for a little over a year, and only today the logo had the beta label removed, I were actually reading about it on Engadget, flipped to the tab with my mail and saw that it had beta on the logo, refreshed the page and the beta label was gone.

  3. Re:Beta by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    >Wasn't the paid version non-beta all along?

    Yeah, and it's reliable. There's really no reason for small and medium businesses to run their own mail servers anymore.

  4. Re:Some say that the freebie version will end, too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is not true. From the Google official blog:

    We've heard some questions about why the link to Google Apps Standard Edition disappeared from the Enterprise Apps home page, so we wanted to share the answer. As we explored a few design changes to the page, the link to Standard Edition was inadvertently dropped, although the free version of Apps was, as always, available here. We've put the link back where it belongs so that it's easy to find.

    We have no intention of eliminating Standard Edition, and we apologize for any confusion.