

Google is keeping Amazon.com on its toes. The company launched an application-hosting service in preview today, called Google App Engine, which competes directly with an offering from Amazon.com.

And although the service is, for the moment, somewhat basic, it already has some key advantages over Amazon, according to Gartner analyst Ray Valdez.

"Developers can collaborate [on the platform], and you've got a management system that lets you see how your app is doing in real time," Valdez says.

The downside? There are limitations.

"You can't do more than 65,000 http requests and you can only do 2,000 e-mails a day," Valdez says.

Google readily concedes it's still primitive.

"We've got a lot left to do, and there are a lot of features we still want to add to the system," wrote Kevin Gibbs, the tech lead on Google App Engine on the official Google blog.

For the preview release, applications have to be implemented using the Python programming language, but Google says it looks forward to "supporting more languages in the future." And in a typically Googlesque move, developers who signed up as early as last night were given a message that there was no more space left.

"I signed up last night and was given a message that there was no more room, but maybe 30 minutes later my invitation showed up – I guess they're just playing with our emotions," says Ian Bicking, a Chicago-based web developer.

The pricing also remains undetermined. Since the service will likely be targeted to small- and medium-sized businesses, which tend to be price sensitive, pricing could be critical. Right now, it's free for the first 10,000 developers who sign up, and the company says it will always be free to start.

"Developers will be able to purchase additional computing resources as needed, but Google App Engine will always be free to get started," Gibbs wrote.

Valdez argues, however, that people who use web-based hosting services aren't looking for a bargain as much as they're looking for convenience.

"If you're really price sensitive, you'll go to a hosting company. I had someone calculate it. Amazon.com is actually not the cheapest, but the value is that you don't have to worry about administering the system," Valdez says. "The people who will find [Google App Engine] attractive are those who have low- to mid-size requirements and who are willing to accept the fact that their data will be stored in the clouds, and a lot of Fortune 500 companies are not comfortable with that."

See Also: