Vista - Default Google considers dropping beta tag

Will Gmail get a final release five years after launch?
Madeline Bennett
vnunet.com, 28 May 2009
Google has revealed that it is considering taking some of its products out of beta, after years of keeping flagship applications such as Gmail in test status.
According to reports, Google executives speaking at the firm's I/O Developer Conference this week admitted that moves were afoot to deal with the 'beta' conundrum, after a Gartner analyst pointed out to the search giant that business users could find the tag off-putting.
Matt Glotzbach, product management director for Google's enterprise products, initially countered that Google Apps Premier Edition is not labelled as a beta. However, he conceded that many of the applications within the corporate suite still carry the beta tag next to the logo.
"It's a minor annoyance and something you'll see addressed in the not-too-distant future," he said.
Google Docs product manager Jonathan Rochelle added that the firm does not treat the applications as test versions, and that it was "almost traditional" for Google to retain the beta tag.
Google has long been a fan of beta status for its products. Google Mail is still in beta, five years after its initial launch, as are Google Docs and Calendar. After the recent service blackouts that Gmail and Google News customers have suffered, the firm is no doubt keen to reassure business users that its applications are stable, final release versions and are not still in the trial and development phase.

To be honest...they at least say it is beta...all other mainstream systems say they are final,but however they constantly need updating as flaws are found--sounds like beta,doesn't it?? I am and have been since release,a fan of Vista and also of Win7,love both for different reasons...but needing so many updates,does that not signify Beta? In other words..just a term which is over-used because true beta is an unknown quality until all bugs are fixed and is stable when used alongside other applications.Even XP,after passing its end-support date..is still receiving critical updates,so it's in effect a beta version although it has reached the end of it's official support.