Google Takes Down App Engine Demo Application After Complaints It Was A Knockoff
One of the applications Google made available to developers, HuddleChat, bears a striking resemblance to Campfire, a real-time chat application form 37Signals LLC, according to several tech bloggers who called Google to task on the matter.
Jason Fried, founder of 37Signals, told ReadWriteWeb, he is disappointed that Google "stooped so low to basically copy it feature for feature, layout for layout."
Fried added, "We thought that would be beneath Google, but maybe it's time to reevaluate what they stand for."
Google has not addressed the issue on its new AppEngine blog, but writes at www.huddlechat.com, "Hi, a couple of our colleagues wrote Huddle Chat in their spare time as a sample application for other developers to demonstrate the power and flexibility of Google App Engine. We've heard some complaints from the developer community about it and because of that we've decided to take it down. If you'd like to see more sample applications written on Google App Engine please check out our documentation and our App Gallery." The entry is signed "The Google App Engine Team."
In announcing Apps Engine on Tuesday, Kevin Gibbs, a tech lead for Google App Engine, wrote on the company's corporate blog, "In the same way that Blogger made it easy to create a blog, Google App Engine is designed from the ground up to make it easy to create and run web applications."
The tool was available free to the first 10,000 developers that signed up during a preview release. The App Engine Web site now cautions that space is limited and "for now you'll have to wait."
This article has been updated.