GMail, Google’s email appli­ca­tion, is a beta product. This means that it is in a testing phase and not stable enough for produc­tion. GMail, however, is quite robust, and works as well as any other email service provider. Besides, it’s been quite sometime since its release. So why is it still a beta?

If you look further, you’ll realize that GMail is not Google’s only beta appli­ca­tion. Google News, Google Groups, Google Scholar, Google Book Search — the list goes on.

So why so many betas? Maybe the answer lies in the fact that attaching a beta tag to an appli­ca­tion is like attaching a standard disclaimer. If it doesn’t work, the company can easily be forgiven. After all, the product is a beta — what right do you have to expect any better?

However — given that Google has a history of intro­ducing novel, minimal, efficient and highly compete­tive products that turn out to be immediate hits — perhaps the real question is: is Google insecure about its own products? Or is it something else?

This entry was posted on Friday, December 30th, 2005 at 05:43 and is filed under Daily Rant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.