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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."
Well, duh. Google marks apps as beta so they have no uptime or reliability requirements to the end user. You can't blame businesses for wanting software they've paid for to not have such an inherent disclaimer.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
If they don't have a definition for "beta" then why was it there in the first place?
I came to the datacenter drunk with a fake ID, don't you want to be just like me?
We use Google Apps for business purposes, but selectively. It just doesn't work for all my documents. By the term "all", I mean most. We basically use it to keep track of certain project details among other things, but not for any of our real documents.
So many things today I didn't see coming!
-We finally get a straight answer from Microsoft on C#, in favour of OSS
-Russia and the US agree to disarm
-Microsoft admits there's a security flaw in ActiveX
-VLC reaches 1.0
-Google's stuff gets out of Beta
Either I need to pay more attention, or drop my cynicism. I guess I kind of expected them to happen, just not for a while yet.
Funny may not give karma, but +5 Informative never made anyone snort coffee out their nose.
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... ;-)
The problem is, there are two different definitions of "stable" one is, the application doesn't crash or have lots of downtime, the other is the application doesn't change. Gmail was stable by the first and most common definition, however I don't think Google imagined Gmail was stable by the second definition. However, a few years later, it became clear that Gmail was more or less stable by both definitions.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Glad to see they're out of beta. So, when can I create, edit, view and share documents on Google Docs from my Google G1 Android phone? So far, you can edit and view spreadsheets (to a limited extent) but you can't create them, nor use any of the other doc types.
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Gmail has 100 million users and has been around over five years. Apps has 1.75 million. So, yes, about damn time.
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
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.
Calling Google Apps "Beta" was likely a pragmatic move on the front of both marketing to bleeding edge internet enthusiasts who are addicted to novelty and engineering in limiting the expectations and liability of google products. They could maintain beta quality products and code and levels of support as long as they kept the beta moniker.
However, I feel that the web's incestuous advertising scheme is beginning to dry up in these times of economic peril, so google needs to go for harder sources of money, like enterprises. Now they're no longer circumventing Microsoft in the market but facing them head to head for a position in the enterprise. Microsoft has as strong position in this market, so they have a certain legacy and stability, which enterprises appreciate.
The first step for Google in combating this will be the simple rebranding of their products to give the semblance of maturity. In reality, any recent changes to the code are minimal to superficial, so this is merely a marketing maneuver and says nothing about the practical roles of beta and gold software in software engineering. It's a welcome change, but it is yet to be seen whether google has the attention span to maintain stable enterprise products. Offering a consistent platform will also open them up to the sort of demonization that Microsoft has faced up until now, as expectations may rise above what they can deliver.
In short, Google is growing up.
That's what beta means, you idiot! It means it's in the trial phase! You mean I've been right all along, and the beta tag was just an excuse to eliminate complaints? Well color me shocked. The attitude has got a whiff of evil about it.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Julie
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Take a gander at Network World's Google Subnet
Google news for the enterprise.
that aren't keen to run their business on software that sounds like it's still in the trial phase.
This is the precise moment the last developer with a say in business, died at google. May they rest in peace.
The beta label issue has been around about as long as gmail itself, and every time they were asked about it, the answer was always the same: it's trial software. Because, IT WAS, and STILL IS.
Now we have google announcing on their own their graduation from beta, but for all the wrong reasons. The marketing heads had to make it known that they won. They should have just said, "it is now stable software." But no, that is what a responsible developer would say. They basically denounced the beta label being there in the first place, giving strategic reasons, and not technical ones. The worst part? If they had known better, they would have still pretended to be responsible developers.
They are idiots, and they are taking over. If I had google stock, I would sell it right about... NOW.
Yes, but Google Apps uses your own domain name. Hence the reason why it was originally named "Google Apps for Your Domain". The name has since been shortened, but that fact still remains.
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