Well last night Google announced “Google App Engine”, it’s essentially Google’s answer to Amazon’s web services. Pricing hasn’t been announced at this time, or at least that I could find. If you are interested in testing it out you can sign up for the waiting list here.
Right now the only API language supported is Python, but the platform is supposed to be language agnostic and should be supporting other languages in the near future. TechCrunch has put together a quick app and has details on working with the API up on their site right now and you can find that here:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/08/techcrunch-labs-our-experience-building-and-launching-app-on-google-app-engine/
The SDK and docs are all available here:
http://code.google.com/appengine/
I am on the waiting list. Should be interesting to see how these two services stack up against each other.
I am also wondering since several startups are using Amazon Web services for their applications, and theoretically others will also soon be using Google AppEngine, I wonder how long before they just start running optical fiber between their respective datacenters and house a large portion of the “internet” between them. I also wonder if an AppEngine or AWS version of WordPress, or the like, is in the cards in the not-so-distant future.