So just how long should a BETA period be?

After the Gmail issues surfaced yesterday about mailboxes being deleted and so forth, I took a look at how long a Beta period Gmail has been in. Pick the right answer from the choices below:

• 6 months
• 3 days
• 12 hours
• 6 years
• over 30 months

The correct answer is over 30 months. So with a huge team of developers, designers and engineers, the product is still not ready for primetime? Or does it mean that they actually put it out in 2004 with no testing and are using this 3 year period for testing?

Look at Flickr. They are no longer in Beta, now they are in Gamma. WTF is Gamma.

Are these companies using the umbrella of the Latin language to cover their asses in case of an issue?

I am all for public testing for a number of reasons including: cost, feedback, generating buzz for product, etc. But how long is just too long?

I believe it is now time for the gift wrapping to come off the Gmail Beta box. Let's get it into production folks. Let's remove the Beta from the logo. Let's do it now. To help them, I am taking the Beta packaging off myself, I think 30 years has been long enough!