back to article Google strips beta wrapper from Gmail, Docs et al

Google has slipped the beta tag from its Gmail, Calendar, Docs and Talk apps in an effort to lure more businesses out of Microsoft and IBM’s clutches. The company, which launched the Google Apps suite two years ago, announced the decision today. Mountain View justified the move away from beta by pointing out that Google Apps …

COMMENTS

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  1. Rob
    FAIL

    Numpty

    “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,”

    Well done Google, it's not flippin rocket science

  2. muttley
    Happy

    Apps => Outlook Tasks please

    thanks.

  3. Andy Barber
    Thumb Down

    Gmail

    I've had a Yahoo! Mail account since 01-1995 I tried Gmail once but realized my Yahoo! mail wasn't broken & didn't need fixing.

  4. Ian Bradshaw
    FAIL

    well ...

    “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,” said Google’s Matthew Glotzbach in a blog post.

    no shit.

    gotta give that a fail if its taken 5 years for them to realise the bleedin obvious ...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Still immature (the product that is)

    We've recently given Apps a try and it's full of holes, bugs and annoying problems that would make migrating a small business very tiresome. There's no joined up thinking on the system, it's just the free apps very loosely bundled together with no proper way to import data from any of the free versions of Docs or GMail. Why does every app need to open in a new tab for example? If you already have that app open you still get another tab. It would be even worse on tab-less browsers. Google may think Apps is out of Beta, but it's got a very long way to go to take on MS or IBM.

  6. Crazy Operations Guy
    FAIL

    Nice try

    But no one will want a product that has been in beta for 5 years, and has the uptime bowling ball thrown out the window.

    The cynical dmins a weary of using it because they do not want to hand over their critical business data to an ADVERTISING AGENCY, despite what they say about respecting privacy. Lazy admins just don't want to spend the time moving over all of the company's e-mail over when they could just leave it on their own iron and get on with their day.

  7. Norfolk Enchants Paris
    WTF?

    5 years?

    5 years in Beta? Even Longhorn wasn't that long in the tooth...

  8. J 3
    Pirate

    Beta

    “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”

    So, just remove the "beta tag", of course, since people are too stupid to decide in each case whether "beta" means something or not. All that matter is just perceptions anyway, right? Haven't they learned with their "colleagues" that you should release alpha software and give it a version number of at least 3.11 or 95 or 10.3, just to pick some random examples, and then fix stuff as people buy the newer versions? :-)

  9. GrantB
    Boffin

    @anon coward

    I'm probably responding to a paid-for troll, but did you really try it? Can't imagine any better integration than having document come in via email, click on it & it is open in Google apps.

    It works very well for our small company; free & no worries about setting up and maintaining a complex Exchange server. We also use a combination of MS Office 2007 (with Outlook) and Thunderbird/ OpenOffice; Google apps just happens to be the mail server and a easy way of sharing documents for people off-site.

    Previous company I worked for had enforced low mailbox size restrictions for Outlook (and even then searching mail was crap in Outlook 2003/2007), now I still use Outlook but have a 6GB+ mail box accessible everywhere.. and search that works.

    Being in beta was nonsense anyway; although they occasional tweaked features it has been stable & useful for years

  10. Neoc
    FAIL

    Oooh, yes....

    ...just what I want: my company's emails and documents on a US server where the US government (or any rival company who can hoodwink a judge) can just whip out a "hand-it-over" court order and Google has to comply.

    Never mind the fact that I am not a US citizen, do not reside in the US, have no affiliates in the US and do not trade with US companies.

    Yeah, I want me some of that!

  11. Neil Lofts
    Thumb Down

    Google Docs still feels like beta software

    Once Google make their Docs apps work across browsers, I'll consider it out of the beta phase. As it is, one can't scroll a spreadsheet if it's opened in Opera, which makes it all but useless!

  12. Bernie 2
    WTF?

    I only read the title.

    How interesting can a story about a webmail client coming out of beta possibly be?

    *yawn*

  13. D@v3
    FAIL

    errrrrr

    Gmail, is still in Beta in this part of the world (UK)

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