JULY 8TH, 2009
By ADMIN

GMail Leaves Beta and Hell is Bound to Freeze Over

I never truly knew what was the impetus for the Beta tag that has been attached to GMail, Google Docs, and the other Google Apps for the past few years. Honestly, Gmail, for all intents and purposes, was not substantially different last week than it was one year ago. What has changed however is that the Google apps suite has finally left Beta status. It is official; Gmail has reached 1.0 status. Hell might just be freezing over soon.

It only took five years, and it is about time. During those five years that GMail was in beta status, it became cool for web applications to be beta. It almost seemed that being beta was an easy way for a piece of software to never grow up and never quite deliver what it promised. With the new shift from "betahood" Google has also added some substantial enterprise support to the app suite, and they have recently beefed up GMail to support drag-and-drop folders. Personally, it doesn't matter much to me. I use Google apps almost exclusively. I do my writing in Google Docs, and I use the Calendar and GMail on my iPhone and macs instead of MobileMe. My only gripe would happen if Google now shifts to paid apps, or if the developers move onto other lucrative applications and leave GMail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs to die on the vine.

If you are saddened or shocked by the lack of beta when you log into your Google Universe, never fear. Google has released a Labs plug-in that will add the beta tag back into your apps. Check out the "Back to Beta" plug-in if you need it. If not, join the rest of us in celebrating Google 1.0's birthday.

via GMail Blog


categories Software

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