Google App Engine – big apps for Python folks

Google’s App Engine has been released. This is much cooler than just opening up BigTable for outside access (which is what TechCrunch reported over the weekend). One big difference between App Engine and Amazon Web Services is that the The Development Environment lets you build an app locally, including Google’s auth API and datastore. That’s very clever. You can build up an app completely and then deploy it when ready.

Or, in the case of the preview period, when you get an account… which, sadly, I didn’t. I rather wish there was a bit more information about when more developer slots will be opened. It would be a shame to create a cool app and have to sit on it for months. It would also be nice to know what pricing will look like, but given what they are giving away for free, I’m guessing it will not be unreasonable.

Overall, I’ve got to say that it looks like a great service on the surface.