Comments on: Is GMail Finally Complete?

By: Google Officially Drops the Beta Tag

Google Officially Drops the Beta Tag — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:44:25 +0000

[...] we predicted on SitePoint three days ago, Google has quietly dropped the “beta” tag from all their main [...]

By: Craig Buckler

Craig Buckler — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:43:08 +0000

Thanks @Stormrider!
Is anyone still doubting the validity of this post?!!

By: Stormrider

Stormrider — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:14:11 +0000

Google today dropped the ‘beta’ mark on Gmail, Calendar and others

http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/07/google-brings-gmail-docs-calendar-and-talk-out-of-beta/

By: Craig Buckler

Craig Buckler — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:26:19 +0000

@spheroid
Are you a typical business user? Many large organisations and public bodies will not even start evaluating software until it’s out of a beta. Look at the situation with MS Windows — often businesses refuse to look at it until SP1 has been released. Many are evaluating Vista even though Windows 7 is due in 3 months.

Historically, “beta” has been equated with shoddy and untested software. Google and many Web 2.0 organisations have tried to change that perception, but have they succeeded in the business world?

(That was the point of this article. It’s also noticeable that Google are not using ‘beta’ on some newer products and rumors about GMail and Docs have been circulating for a while.)

By: spheroid

spheroid — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:04:56 +0000

I think this article was put out here mainly to warrant comments…In my opinion, too many websites use “beta”. To me, it has lost all meaning, especially when everyone uses it and I think other sites use it for too long of a period as well. In the article you say no one cares about the version number of a web site. Does the word beta *really* make a difference either?? Not to me.

By: Richard - Accessible Web Design

Richard - Accessible Web Design — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:18:43 +0000

What surprises me is that I can still use my gmail address, as here in the UK they had to do the embarassing uturn of renaming it googlemail because the gmail name is owned by someone else. Luckily I got in early to get a gmail rather than a googlemail address.
I’ve forgotten to even look at the beta tag anymore on Google’s products as I just assume that it doesn’t really have a significant meaning now.

Twitter: @accessibleweb
http://accessibleweb.eu/

By: Jordan

Jordan — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:24:33 +0000

Is it me, or did the “beta” label just recently come off Google Calendar?

By: electroskan.com

electroskan.com — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:37:28 +0000

Paul Baarn Says:
July 5th, 2009 at 7:53 pm

What’s the trigger for this post? Do you have any indication that the beta-label is coming off for Gmail? That’s what I got from the title, but from the content you just seem to speculate and make a different point. It just confused me, even though the point you make is interesting.

I second that

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:17:24 +0000

Depending on where you are located, so long as the application isn’t fully released, you can continue run it as an R&D tax write off. Once it is released, you have to treat each release as a separate product which has it’s own set of original features so that you can prove you are creating something the market wants. ie you need market demand for your product in order to claim the R&D investment. This is designed to fuel innovation from the tech companies. But, it’s no longer classified as R&D once it’s been released.

By: floater

floater — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:13:39 +0000

I think that the Beta tag got a really bad rap back in the days when software (particularly on PCs) was really buggy. I remember MS releasing a hard disc compression application that boosted your hard drive’s capacity by almost 80% but usually caused everything to disappear in a couple of months. (You might think I’m joking but I’m not.) Was that a beta release? Nope. We paid good money for it. Then we paid good money for a better version of the OS. Ah yes, those were the days…

Now Beta seems to mean “we think it works but let us know if it doesn’t” and then it gets fixed. Some changes really are the better.