Google has gone into the web-based application hosting business pioneered by Amazon Web Services by launching a trial version of its AppEngine, announced on Google's new AppEngine Blog. At the moment you can only develop apps in Python ("Code with extensions written in C is not supported") -- see details here. However, they'll all run in Google's software stack using Google's file system, and can use Google's email interfaces and Google Accounts.
All this will make it easier for small companies to get into the web applications business. It will also put Google in a position where they know each company's business backwards and can take them over, knowing they are already compatible with Google's proprietary software and services. (Doesn't this sound like a tribe of cannibals opening a nursery school?) Or, of course, Google can launch a rival offering, if the market is big enough....
As Read Write Web observes: "It does make you wonder: would you want Google to control your entire end-to-end development environment? Isn't that what developers used to be afraid of Microsoft for?"
Of course, since it looks as though most Silicon Valley tech companies would like nothing better than to be acquired by Google, this is less of a bug and more of a feature.
All we need now is Sergey and Larry doing little dances and shouting "Web developers, Web developers, Web developers." Or maybe that's Eric Schmidt's job....
