Geekazine 2010: Tag Page Spreadsheet

Posts Tagged ‘spreadsheet’

Googles’ 5 Year Beta – Should We Regulate Terms?

July 9th, 2009 | Author: Jeffrey Powers

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Google recently took the Beta label off of Gmail and Google Docs. Gmail has been in beta for over 5 years – with a 3 year private beta. By being in Beta, one could easily write off an issue or even think the accountability and liability might not be theirs. So shouldn’t the ISO put some regulation on this small tag?

Google started with Gmail back on April 7th 2004. They were in a Closed Beta – which meant that you had to get an invitation to use it. However, it wasn’t a difficult thing to get an invitation. My entry into Gmail wasn’t until December of that year.

3 years later – Feb 2nd, 2007 to be exact, Gmail removed the restriction. However, the Beta tag stayed on. It generally went unnoticed until this last July 6th, when Google decided to remove the tagline.
Google Docs had a shorter span – Technically starting in August of 2005. I say technically, because it was launched as a program called “Writely”. Google Spreadsheet came in June of 2006 and by October 10th, the two had merged to start Google Docs. Once again – Beta until July 6th of 2009.

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