posted on Monday, November 15, 2004 2:46 PM
by
demiliani
Why Gmail is still in Beta?
This is one of the most frequent question I've received in the past months and (because I'm not a Google worker 
) my answer was only a supposition: better testing or maybe trying to release the final Gmail version with a new and more complete Google suite (Instant Messaging, browser etc.)?
No... the answer seems not be these. According to this article on TechUser, seems that part of the reason why Gmail is invite-only and still in beta is because Google is waiting for patent the idea of scanning emails and serving advertisements based on email contents.
What could happen to other email services if this happens? The Webmail war is really fascinating...