6 premises for killer apps on the Google App Engine or Good bye Appendix, Hello Google Apps
An appendicitis is a painful, uncomfortable and ultimately debilitating condition one which I have suffered with for over a year. However, its remedy (Laproscopic surgery) is fairly tame as far as surgical procedures go - way too much money to an evil hospital, a shitton of painkillers and a week of bedrest
PHPitis is another condition I have been suffering from. It’s not early as painful and has provided me with a decent income and professional growth. It is also not a pussy inflamed organ with no apparent value pressing up against all the nicely formed and functioning organs around it. However, the feeling that there is something not right “down there” remains.
I’ve always known that python is the best language out there. I don’t mean to start yet another stupid language fight, because every language is fine and dandy. But honestly, every programmer I respect has told me the same thing, they wish they could just write python. The only knocks against python are:
- Lack of hosting options
- Lack of Jobs / Skilled personnel
The first one, is obviously stupid, because it is as easy to run as PHP, but is totally chicken and egg. The second is pretty much the same. You have to be a better programmer to write python, and so there are less people who can, so there are less CTOs wanting to risk a language with less people available, so they go with PHP, and get speghetti code, because 90% of PHP developers aren’t that good.
Anyway, for what it’s worth, I love python, and I’m not that good at it yet, because I never get jobs in it, and it’s hard to get clients signed up for something that isn’t hosted anywhere…. Until now.
A day before I went to the hospital for an examination into yet another bout of my awful stomach pains which turned into the aforementioned surgery, I got my App Engine key. During my few days of bed rest without net, I took it for a spin.
I’m as afraid of the big G as everyone else, and I hate the idea of locking my code up in a proprietary platform too. But suspend those doubts for a minute and let me just tell you, that this thing is pretty cool. Being able to write really elegant code while being able to scale to the end of the googleverse is pretty exciting.
I’m not going to repeat the questions everyone is asking about portability, sustainability, etc. I’m looking at what would be a “killer app” that could be developed and deployed in 6 months and that would be successful on this platform. Here are the attributes I would expect it to have:
Uses Google Apps data apis
If you’ve got the power of google calendar behind you, why spend forever building the database schema to support a calendaring application, it will never be as good. If you need a wiki, use sites. It’s all there, and google will always provide more and more support for integration. Plus, you reap all the benefits of your data being interoperable with other formats these services export to. No brainer.
Uses Google Apps Provisioing apis
SaaS is in forever. This means setup must be really simple for users. They shouldn’t have to do a run around to setup google apps before using your service.
Uses Google Authentication
To survive in the enterprise, you need the single signon stuff. Plus, they need it already if you want to do the first two.
Provides a better / enhanced interface to existing google apps
OR
Provides a 3rd party middleware / conversion layer to other software
On the first count, I think that you could provide something which makes it easier to use google apps, or provided some value added service there. For instance, a simple CRM system which is a mashup of Contacts, gmail, sites and calendar would probably not be too much of a stretch.
On the second, there are lots of opportunities here, to be the glue, which makes you an attractive meal for both google, and the 3rd party you are integrating with. good for short term wins.
Makes Real Money (is not ad supported)
I feel that the architecture of google apps is not for making content rich sites. It’s really more for building tools which do something. Ad supported sites which ACTUALLY make any money (as in profit, as in real money) are so rare. All of them are either content producers or content organizers. If you want to do something like that, go for a CMS like Drupal or something, and make your .02 per click on viagra ads. I don’t think it’s a very exiting place to be.
The Sew-up
What is this blasphemy? I thought you were a linux free software guy? You are encouraging me to place all my data in google and make my app totally dependent on google? Yeah, but I’m also a husband, and a son and I have rent + huge medical bills. I think there is a golden opportunity here, and the tech is fun to play with. There is no point doing this IMO, if you don’t want to marry google for this app. It won’t make sense for everything you build, but if you’re going to do it, go whole hog and get bought. Of course, there are millions thinking the same thing, but this platform has the potential to have lots of really small apps which get in, get a pain point solved and get out - bought - or at least with a low recovery time.
