Radical Behavior

In case you haven’t opened a web browser today, Google released a new platform to allow developers to quickly and easily deploy web applications leveraging Googles infrastructure as the back end. The advantages to the developer is they don’t have to worry about the very complicated system architecture issues that usually require a brilliant IT engineer to solve. Instead they can focus on writing the code.

The extreme press coverage is no doubt due to the simple fact that it is Google offering the service. Amazon has had some what similar services for a while and has received a fraction of the press that Google has or will garner over this platform. However, there is still some very important differences about Google’s offering.

1. It’s dead simple. Amazon’s services still require a lot of very technical IT knowledge to utilize. If the video demos of Google’s version are to be believed, the developers need not worry about these system details.
2. It integrates with Google’s account services. This means it’s very easy to build a web application that allows logging in via Google. I’m not sure if this is a pro or a con and I believe only time will tell on this one.
3. It only has support for Python. Sorry PHP and Rails developers. However, they have said they will release other languages after some intial feedback. My money is that PHP will be the first.

So here’s my thoughts. When they open it to PHP, a ton of PHP developers will flock to it. It will be free, or at least very cheap, and much easier to manage then a shared host or a dedicated server. Google will continue to roll out objects/modules that make it easy to integrate with other sites and services, and since it will be on the Google infrastructure, it will be easier for Google to aquire the popular apps and integrate them into their services.

So who wins?

Google does because it means more page inventory that they can sell advertising on. More data in their database that they can organize and present in different ways. More adoption of their technologies like GFS and Big Table.

Developers do because it means scalability and rock bottom costs. It means a farm system for exit strategies. It means feeling like you are “part of Google” without being employed there.

Who do you think wins?