Apple has been working on the Chrome code base* for a long time :P

*) The WebKit part

It's about managing expectations/perceptions:

Gmail is in beta, so Google gets less flak for outages, account lockouts, etc. "It's free and beta, so it's unsupported, take it or leave it". They have a strong position compared to other crappier webmail services.

For browsers it's reversed. Beta = "Can I really trust their browser to handle my online banking SSL connections properly?" It's the "go straight to version 2 to increase adoption" phenomenon.

Edit: Also, strategy. Gmail expands adsense footprint. Chrome is Google's attempt to compete with flash, silverlight, et al. for the future "web OS", following the rule that platforms always end up beating applications.

The never-ending beta seems to be endemic to services rather than products.

I remember they had a piece talking about this. Something about beta meaning they would continue to add new features to it.

So I'm guessing that Chrome will not see additional functionality.

EDIT: Like he said...RTFA...

RTFA:

"We have removed the beta label as our goals for stability and performance have been met but our work is far from done. We are working to add some common browser features such as form autofill and RSS support in the near future. We are also developing an extensions platform along with support for Mac and Linux."

RFTA?

Read the F*n Article.

Read the Fun Article?

Read the facts, again?

Radical turtles fight aliens? Man, this is hard.