“Google has decided to leave its product in beta rather than issuing updates in the familiar system of numbered software versions—1.0, 2.0, and so on. Those distinctions make more sense when tech consumers are purchasing software on CD-ROMs or downloading it onto their hard drives. The Google take is that the beta label better conveys the “constant feature refinement” consumers expect from Web-based applications. Of course, the end of Gmail’s beta era won’t signify the end of feature updates, so for anyone who isn’t on the Gmail product team at Google, the distinction means very little. In fact, it may just be a marketing ploy to give Gmail a cutting-edge feel. Even co-founder Larry Page once admitted that using a beta label for years on end is “arbitrary” and has more to do with “messaging and branding” than a precise reflection of a technical stage of development.”