Google has a great post out about how they never release anything from beta. Okay it’s really about how they are releasing Google desktop. But with google desktop out of the labs it brings my thoughts back to Gmail. They sure seem to be taking their time getting that out of beta. I can’t imagine what features they are waiting to implement but as soon as they gave 50 invites to a large number of their older users it seemed like it was ready to come out of the bag.

Why am I so anxious for it to come out? I mean with 50 invites and no one to give them out too it seems like everyone has one who wants one. Yet once it goes public it should do for email what hotmail did long ago, building a popular free email. Gmail should be the next wave of web mail and no matter how many invites I have it’s still limited to my friend. Come on Google, let the rest of the world have a chance.

We seem to be famous (or infamous) for never taking our products out of beta -- the software equivalent of commitment issues, perhaps. But in one case, at least, we're taking the plunge: Google Desktop Search has been kicked out of the Google Labs nest, and is officially 1.0. Nikhil Bhatla