It is pretty amazing.

What makes it stand out is really the DataStore API and Admin Interface. These two are really a game changer.

The DataStore API is a BigTable interface obviously. Without this we would just have another hosted scaling appserver solution without a database. The fact that the data layer is proven and ubiquitous just makes development/deployment simple. Frankly it scares me to think of how low the bar is to deploy an app now.

I remember when I was out of college I realized that most people thought programming was HARD! I secretly enjoyed the fact that, little did they know, programming by itself is really pretty simple, the hard part was getting something out the door. The fact that it’s getting so easy exposes our little secret.

I think I’ll get used to it, just need to look on the bright side. More focus on creative ideas.

That said, App Engine doesn’t fit everything. BigTable still doesn’t include any free text search which i think is ridiculous. I guess someone will write a python lib for creating an inverted index on BigTable. It also doesn’t fit backend services that crunch or enrich data. So I think mostly open social folks users will use it.

This does put a damper on a lot of startups that have been building user facing apps. I think it’s going to take some time for everyone to adjust but it’s all for the best i hope.

As for me, my startup is thankfully primarily a data enrichment service so App Engine isn’t a good fit. It also makes me think thrudb could pretty easily emulate the DataStore API so apps could be moved else ware.

Well done Google.