Google Apps Leave Beta 116
Today Google announced that they're removing the "beta" label from Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk. They said, "We've come to appreciate that the beta tag just doesn't fit for large enterprises that aren't keen to run their business on software that sounds like it's still in the trial phase." Quoting the NYTimes:
"'Obviously we haven't had a consistent set of policies or definitions around beta,' said Matt Glotzbach, a director of product management at Google. Mr. Glotzbach said that different teams at Google had different criteria for what beta meant, and that Google felt a need to standardize those. ... Practically speaking, the change will mean precious little to Gmail's millions of users. But it could help Google's efforts to get the paid version of its package of applications, which includes Gmail, Calendar, Docs and other products, adopted inside big companies."
Today is a good day (Score:5, Interesting)
-We finally get a straight answer from Microsoft on C#, in favour of OSS
-Russia and the US agree to disarm
-Microsoft admits there's a security flaw in ActiveX
-VLC reaches 1.0
-Google's stuff gets out of Beta
Either I need to pay more attention, or drop my cynicism. I guess I kind of expected them to happen, just not for a while yet.
Docs and Android (Score:3, Interesting)
Glad to see they're out of beta. So, when can I create, edit, view and share documents on Google Docs from my Google G1 Android phone? So far, you can edit and view spreadsheets (to a limited extent) but you can't create them, nor use any of the other doc types.
Re:Today is a good day (Score:2, Interesting)
Yeah, really it's been weird all year. The first black president, record labels drop DRM, Duke Nukem Forever is finally cancelled, The Watchmen is released as a movie, HTML5 and CSS3 are starting to be implemented in almost all the major browsers, and...
...what else? I bet we could keep it going. That stuff was just off the top of my head.
Re:Beta (Score:2, Interesting)
Simple Marketing (Score:5, Interesting)
Calling Google Apps "Beta" was likely a pragmatic move on the front of both marketing to bleeding edge internet enthusiasts who are addicted to novelty and engineering in limiting the expectations and liability of google products. They could maintain beta quality products and code and levels of support as long as they kept the beta moniker.
However, I feel that the web's incestuous advertising scheme is beginning to dry up in these times of economic peril, so google needs to go for harder sources of money, like enterprises. Now they're no longer circumventing Microsoft in the market but facing them head to head for a position in the enterprise. Microsoft has as strong position in this market, so they have a certain legacy and stability, which enterprises appreciate.
The first step for Google in combating this will be the simple rebranding of their products to give the semblance of maturity. In reality, any recent changes to the code are minimal to superficial, so this is merely a marketing maneuver and says nothing about the practical roles of beta and gold software in software engineering. It's a welcome change, but it is yet to be seen whether google has the attention span to maintain stable enterprise products. Offering a consistent platform will also open them up to the sort of demonization that Microsoft has faced up until now, as expectations may rise above what they can deliver.
In short, Google is growing up.
Some say that the freebie version will end, too (Score:3, Interesting)
Julie
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Take a gander at Network World's Google Subnet [networkworld.com]
Google news for the enterprise.
Remnants Of A Power Struggle (Score:3, Interesting)
that aren't keen to run their business on software that sounds like it's still in the trial phase.
This is the precise moment the last developer with a say in business, died at google. May they rest in peace.
The beta label issue has been around about as long as gmail itself, and every time they were asked about it, the answer was always the same: it's trial software. Because, IT WAS, and STILL IS.
Now we have google announcing on their own their graduation from beta, but for all the wrong reasons. The marketing heads had to make it known that they won. They should have just said, "it is now stable software." But no, that is what a responsible developer would say. They basically denounced the beta label being there in the first place, giving strategic reasons, and not technical ones. The worst part? If they had known better, they would have still pretended to be responsible developers.
They are idiots, and they are taking over. If I had google stock, I would sell it right about... NOW.