Gmail turned five on Wednesday, April 1. Launched in 2004 as an invitation-only e-mail service, the Google product now has more than 100 million users. Yet it’s still in “beta”—a term of art traditionally reserved for prototype software that’s ready for testing. What gives?
Semantics. Usually technology companies keep products in beta for a short period of time—as a transitional phase between “alpha” (when in-house testers or focus groups try out the software) and the official release. Beta releases also tend to be more buggy than the final version. Neither of these qualities accurately describes Gmail (although there was a worldwide service outage in February); the label is just a way for Google to signal users that they’re still tweaking the e-mail service and adding new features. Company spokespeople won’t say exactly when Gmail will be out of beta, but apparently there’s an “internal checklist” that’s lacking in some crucial checkmarks.
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