As you can see in the following image, Google has changed again this week the Gmail toolbar. As usual these changes have enhanced the interface and have added nice functionalities.

Despite the fact that the added features were in users direct benefit, I think that Google has to start creating a different method to deploy these changes or applications “upgrade”. The method that nowadays they use  is based on the fact that all their sofware has a special beta tag, therefore, their software is still in development.  With this special tag they change everything they want and when they want.

This is like having an IT administrator who is always making software upgrade during the night (without previous notification). And when you arrive in the morning, to start your work, you have always to start by questioning: “Where is the functionality that I need, I almost swear that it was in this menu before I left yesterday”. Then, after a coffee and a talk with your co-workers, you finally realize that your software was upgraded and that the functionality that your are looking for is now in a different menu.

As we cannot accept this kind of method in our IT department, we also shouldn’t accept it in the Cloud Computing ecosystem. I think that it is time for Google to change its methods of software upgrade. We must also stop the Beta tag virus, it’s spread  all over the cloud, and unfortunately, is continuing to spread.