MrGroove's Blog

After 5 years of remaining in BETA, today Google announced it’s Google Apps suite (Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Talk etc..) will shedding it’s notorious BETA badge today 7/7.

All in all, not the largest news story of the day being that the BETA badge really never kept anyone from not using the services however, I think it’s a clear message that GOOGLE is getting serious about taking on Microsoft in the Small –> Medium sized business arena with it’s Google APPS Suite.  After all, how could a company take a platform serious if it’s still a BETA product?

Here’s a few notes from the Google Blog:

We get asked all the time why Google keeps its products in beta for so long. And Gmail, five years after launch, is consistently a subject of this questioning, even of jokes.
Some people thought that once we opened sign-ups, Gmail should have come out of beta.
Others said that once we integrated chat, developed new anti-spam technology, expanded to 53 languages, shipped a mobile app, added group chat, launched an iPhone UI, added a vacation autoresponder, launched Gmail Labs, etc etc etc…

Some people think we should wait until we launch < one of ongoing secret projects >……

Anyway, if there’s anyone out there who MISS the BETA badge on the Logo, you can enable the Back to Beta feature in the GMAIL Labs.

Gmail leaves beta, launches "Back to Beta" Labs feature [Official Gmail Blog]