Like many software products, Google's Gmail service was first released with a "beta" label on it — meaning that while it was polished enough for public use, it was still in a testing phase, so any glitches were to be excused. Beta versions, which are sandwiched between internal "alpha" versions and final "release" versions, typically have a lifespan of weeks or months.
But Gmail was different. Released on April 1, 2004, it was still in beta five years and tens of millions of users later. That changed on Tuesday, when Gmail finally shed the beta label, signaling that Google considered the product to be fully baked. Google is also removing the beta label from Calendar, Docs and Talk, three other applications that are part of a package of online software called Google Apps.
So why the wait? The official answer doesn't entirely clarify things. "Obviously we haven't had a consistent set of policies or definitions around beta," Matthew Glotzbach, a director of product management at Google, said in an interview.
Practically speaking, the change will mean little to Gmail's millions of users. But it could help the company's efforts to get the paid version of Google Apps adopted inside big companies, where Google is trying to compete with rival offerings from Microsoft and others. Corporate technology managers tend to shy away from beta products, and Google wants to remove any barriers to adoption that it can.
































