Why Is GMail Still in Beta?

Sidebar by Eric Gillin

Not the kind of thing I expected to see covered in Esquire but it started a fun conversation between Darren Strange, myself and a PR chap we know about what beta means these days. I have my own views but would love to hear yours...does beta mean the same these days in the Web 2.0 world? Should anyone care? Should enterprises betting their business on this stuff care?

Answers on a postcard....or here in the comments section.

[update] I notice the unofficial Google blog has their own views - "Gmail still has problems with scalability and server errors are still frequent", though the same could be levelled at Live, Blackberry, Salesforce and others over the last month. Should they all add a beta tag as a get of out of jail free card??

Comments

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2008
  It's just a name and shouldn't be taken seriously. I think the more important question is why does Hotmail not offer POP or IMAP access to it?

• Anonymous
  March 03, 2008
  You've been kicked (a good thing) - Trackback from DotNetKicks.com

• Anonymous
  March 03, 2008
  @Michél...Have you tried the Outlook connector? I use Outlook 2007 to connect to Smartermail Enterprise, RSS feeds, Windows Live, Hotmail, POP...Everything.

• Anonymous
  March 03, 2008
  At least they don't work in the Linux way - most software doesn't even reach 1! 0.3.27 as the version number - I much prefer 'Beta'. Having said that 'Beta' implies that you will eventually reach a full product eventually - someone like Google should be on version 2 by now! ;-)

• Anonymous
  March 03, 2008
  You beat me to it! I was about to write a post with the same title :-) I think the beta tag will start to bite credibility. Can't keep telling organisations to switch to the cloud with no guarantees when you get there... I think most people have accepted that web services are constantly evolving and therefore blips will occur. ('Yikes, Google just deleted my account'; 'Yikes, Facebook won't let me delete my account') Better to take be clear about service/support and suggest back-up plans/alternatives than hide behind a beta tag.

• Anonymous
  March 03, 2008
  Because life is always in beta.

• Anonymous
  March 03, 2008
  @wisemx the Outlook connector for Hotmail is neither POP nor IMAP.  

• Anonymous
  March 03, 2008
  What is it? I know Vlad is not going to like this, but even he will admit that this has been on the cards

• Anonymous
  March 03, 2008
  Most people wouldn't know the difference between Alpha or Beta. This is geek talk. The real innovation of Google is not in technology but in marketing. Sam Miller Walker's Research - a provider of quality business information

• Anonymous
  March 04, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 04, 2008
  Aside from Google's Search & YouTube, I believe every Google product is still in Beta, maybe they just feel more comfortable that way.