Albert On Google App Engine
Last September, my partner Albert wrote a post on the USV blog called I Want A New Platform. Albert’s a VC but he also builds web apps on the side, most recently dailylit.com. It was the process of building daily lit that inspired that post.
Today, he wrote a brief update to that post and concludes that Google may have just answered his call. Here are his thoughts.
Comments (Archived):
Fred,Given the emergence of cloud-computing services through Amazon and – now – Google, one could say that Technology/Operations are no longer assets for startups.How do you think this affects M&A prospects for portfolio companies that uses these services? Will large acquirers be more reluctant to pull the trigger since both the software architecture AND operations are defined/controlled by Amazon and Google?
I don’t have much time so I’ll just quote clay shirky ‘when the technology becomes boring the social becomes interesting’
On first blush, there are some real drawbacks to GAE (Google App Engine) in relation to AWS (Amazon Web Services).The biggest: it appears that users of an app hosted on GAE need to have google accounts. I haven’t be able to verify this though as the initial 10,000 developer accounts have been snatched up :(Python only: hopefully this will be expanded, post haste, to include PHP and Ruby.Limited access: I like the AWS model of being able to customize a stack and run it — many apps (including ours) are built on access to tiny parts of the stack (GD being one). Maybe GAE will be adding more parts as it builds out.One thing I really like: competition in cloud computing. AWS vs GAE is a winning battle for the app developer.CC’d to the USV blog
Thanks for the commentSince both the usv and avc blogs use disqus, it would be neat if both of these posts had one single comment thread. Having you cc it is nice but we can do better than thatFred
While we’re asking for things :)It would be really nice/convenient/more likely to result in replies if the disqus notification emails could be replyed to, with the reply going to the user and (ideally optionally) to the thread. I just tried to reply to Albert’s reply via the notification email and it bounced…
GordonjYou should be able to reply to the notification emails and have that replyposted to the comment thread.Since albert gets all comments to his posts emailed to him, that’s the samething as sending him an emailfred
I’ve been playing with my beta account – you do NOT need to have a Google account to access a site on Google App Engine. It’s merely an option they give people — the other option is to have it open to everybody (the way a normal web app would function).And python is the “first” language they’re going to support, not the only. More languages coming soon.I do agree though, it’s troubling to think that if we port our app to GAE, we won’t be able to get it off if we chose to do so.-Wayne
It certainly sounds like a winner for software startups. However, I am certainly skeptical.Many of Google’s non-advertising related ‘Business’ programs seem to languish and eventually fade.Remember Google Base? How about Site Search? Checkout?Just like Google Base, Google has launched something that competes with a large advertiser. The ad folks probably get an ear-full and the pressure gets put on and the service fades/dies.Or maybe these guys just loose interest? Who knows, but they’ve let some great ideas gather dust.My bet is that “App Engine” eventually will, too.
hello!i work for the musical web site Jamendo. we used the Google App Engine to develop a musical game you can test here :http://jamendogame.appspot….can you tell me what you think about it?