When is Gmail coming out of beta?

*FLASH* · 6 Aug 2007 at 14:49

last i heard it was still in UAT with us as the user

elfy · 6 Aug 2007 at 14:50

well froogle recently went from be to full thing although renamed to "products" and the maps is no longer beta, all done in the last year or so. the only thing with gmail is because it's got such a giant user base that in itself could be causing them problems with de-betaing it

Angus-Higgins · 6 Aug 2007 at 14:59

If they take GMail out of Beta then they will be obliged to sort out any issues that come across with it. In Beta they can leave the problems for longer and not be as direct with the solution to them. This is what I think is the reason for keeping GMail in Beta.

Angus Higgins

SiHH · 6 Aug 2007 at 15:39

Danger Phoenix said:
When Google Mail implemented receiving POP mail, their service simply met all my email requirements. I now have my email set up in Outlook for when I am at my machine and all emails being sent to Google Mail as well for when I away...

Such a nice and clean user interface and far better than the likes of Yahoo and Hotmail

Im stil curious to know why people insist on using an email client rather than using the web interface ?

I dont see the benefit personally ?

Miguél · 6 Aug 2007 at 15:39

platypus said:
Sounds to me pretty much like any mail client, aside from Outlook Express, which is anything but fast.

I quite like having all my mail categorised and filtered into specific folders.

Using an e-mail client at home when having only 1 PC is fine but when you are moving about lots of PC's an online based e-mail system like gmail is absolutely essential and has made my life so much easier

.

SiHH · 6 Aug 2007 at 15:41

Angus-Higgins said:
If they take GMail out of Beta then they will be obliged to sort out any issues that come across with it. In Beta they can leave the problems for longer and not be as direct with the solution to them. This is what I think is the reason for keeping GMail in Beta.

Angus Higgins

Not sure I agree with that one.

As a free service they are not obliged to do anything, beta or no beta. If you read the Ts&Cs to most webmail services im almost certain you will find something in there stating just that.

I have no idea why they are still using the beta 'title' for it but I guess in reality it doesn't really matter as long as it works and people are happy using the service !

afraser2k · 6 Aug 2007 at 15:46

The GMail spam filter seem to do a much better job than Hotmail's. I ended up putting my Hotmail account to accept only from my safe list I was getting so much spam. The GMail filter seems to catch anything sent to my address there.

Then of course there is the free POP client access whereas with Hotmail have to pay for it (at least those made after a certain date?).

DAVEM · 6 Aug 2007 at 15:49

siloleth said:
Im stil curious to know why people insist on using an email client rather than using the web interface ?

I dont see the benefit personally ?

Well if you're calander, contacts, journal, notes are all in Outlook? Makes sense to me

SiHH · 6 Aug 2007 at 15:56

DAVEM said:
Well if you're calander, contacts, journal, notes are all in Outlook? Makes sense to me

Google has all of these features bar the 'journal' one that comes with Outlook. The Journal feature is pointless for 99% of people anyway.

SiHH · 6 Aug 2007 at 15:56

afraser2k said:
The GMail spam filter seem to do a much better job than Hotmail's. I ended up putting my Hotmail account to accept only from my safe list I was getting so much spam. The GMail filter seems to catch anything sent to my address there.

Then of course there is the free POP client access whereas with Hotmail have to pay for it (at least those made after a certain date?).

The GMail Spam filter is superb. I get shed loads of Spam in the spam folder and maybe one a week in the inbox. Not bad going.

Danger Phoenix · 6 Aug 2007 at 15:59

siloleth said:
Im stil curious to know why people insist on using an email client rather than using the web interface ?

I dont see the benefit personally ?

I've used Outlook since before Google Mail was launched and I am just used to it. My Outlook pst file is around 4GB and ALL my email comes into there. I think I just prefer having the files on my computer rather than on some other company's server...

Plus I have my own domain names, which couldn't be used properly with web clients before - my host has a few web clients but they are rubbish, so until a few months ago, Outlook was my only option.

SiHH · 6 Aug 2007 at 16:01

Danger Phoenix said:
My Outlook pst file is around 4GB and ALL my email comes into there.

Eek !

I hope you backup regularly !

PST files are very flakey..

Danger Phoenix · 6 Aug 2007 at 16:05

siloleth said:
Eek !

I hope you backup regularly !

PST files are very flakey..

Never had a problem with the PST files

My important data is automatically backed up onto another drive every night

Hmmm... I either sound like a geek, or a professional who does a very important job

(I am only a 21 year old student who does **** all

)

Rebelius · 6 Aug 2007 at 16:15

I'm the same as you - I've been using outlook for years and it does everything I need it to. It sits in the systray and checks my emails once a minute (can GMail do that) and most of my emails come from the uni IMAP server and then I have a few ISP POP addresses and my hotmail.

can GMail do my IMAP stuff for me? the uni interface is horrible and I have to use that when I'm not at home. Might be worth getting GMail just for that.

SiHH · 6 Aug 2007 at 16:19

Danger Phoenix said:
Never had a problem with the PST files My important data is automatically backed up onto another drive every night

Hmmm... I either sound like a geek, or a professional who does a very important job
(I am only a 21 year old student who does **** all )

Well as long as its backed up then thats no problem.

I have seem numerous PST files get corrupted beyond repair over the years at different places i've worked.

Obviously working in IT I laugh cos im mean

SiHH · 6 Aug 2007 at 16:21

Rebelius said:
I'm the same as you - I've been using outlook for years and it does everything I need it to. It sits in the systray and checks my emails once a minute (can GMail do that) and most of my emails come from the uni IMAP server and then I have a few ISP POP addresses and my hotmail.

can GMail do my IMAP stuff for me? the uni interface is horrible and I have to use that when I'm not at home. Might be worth getting GMail just for that.

No imap..
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=10339

As for mail checking - its instant.

Danger Phoenix · 6 Aug 2007 at 16:23

Rebelius said:
I'm the same as you - I've been using outlook for years and it does everything I need it to. It sits in the systray and checks my emails once a minute (can GMail do that) and most of my emails come from the uni IMAP server and then I have a few ISP POP addresses and my hotmail.

can GMail do my IMAP stuff for me? the uni interface is horrible and I have to use that when I'm not at home. Might be worth getting GMail just for that.

My Uni uses Squirrel Mail, which is also horrible... so I have set up a forwarder that sends all mail to my private account (comes to Outlook)

paul8811 · 6 Aug 2007 at 16:26

siloleth said:
.

I have seem numerous PST files get corrupted beyond repair over the years at different places i've worked.

That used to be in the case before Outlook 2003 as PST file size was max 2gig but now they are 20 iirc

Rebelius · 6 Aug 2007 at 16:34

siloleth said:
As for mail checking - its instant.

yeah, but will it sit in your systray and tell you there's mail?

EDIT: Edinburgh uni uses IMP 4.0.4 - it's nasty.

Danger Phoenix · 6 Aug 2007 at 16:37

Rebelius said:
yeah, but will it sit in your systray and tell you there's mail?

If you download and install Google Desktop, it will