Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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."

6 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. Today is a good day by SilverHatHacker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
    1. Re:Today is a good day by SilverHatHacker · · Score: 5, Funny

      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.
  2. Re:Beta by bemymonkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

    IIRC only the free versions were marked beta...

  3. For those of you disappointed by this announcement by grantham · · Score: 5, Funny

    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

  4. The good news: Google apps are all out of beta! by sootman · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  5. 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.