This article was published on July 7, 2009

Gmail and other Google Apps ‘Out of Beta’


Gmail and other Google Apps ‘Out of Beta’

gmail-out-of-betaWell, you can rest easy now, Google has indeed finally announced the removal of the beta label from its core family of applications. It’s been a focus of great discussion as to when Google would actually decided to make the move, and today is the big day.

Today will see Gmail, Calendar, Docs and Gtalk all shed their beta label.

The Google Apps suite launched two years ago and has grown from strength to strength with both consumer usage and enterprise. According to Google, more than 1.75 million companies around the world run the business on Google Apps.

While many of you may wonder what took so long, Google’s official response is likely to keep you unsatisfied. Matt Glotzbach, a director of product management at Google told the NYTimes:

“Obviously we haven’t had a consistent set of policies or definitions around beta, it was time to address the issue and bring the products out of beta. For business customers, it is an important sign in terms of the maturity of our product offering and commitment to this business,” Mr. Glotzbach said. “I’ve had C.I.O.s tell me that they would not consider a product labeled ‘beta.”

From the sounds of it, it appears the move is primarily to drive enterprise business into using Google Apps. For those of you concerned this will be the end of beta features, Google assures us that it has “much more in store…”

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