Yikes ... some bumps in the road for AppEngine

Hey guys,

I noticed on TechCrunch this morning that Google pulled down the HuddleChat application from AppEngine because 37Signals felt it was too similar to their application, BaseCamp. HuddleChat was developed by Google engineers in their spare time apparently.

I'm not sure how I feel about that.

I'm actually a big fan of Basecamp. I've been a paying customer for almost 2 years now and I've really enjoyed their application. It's easy to use and the price is pretty reasonable. The company - 37signals - is also known for creating the highly popular Ruby on Rails application framework.

So, on one hand, I'm kind of glad that Google took the risk to pull down HuddleChat to avoid a conflict (real or perceived) with 37signals. That is a pretty significant thing for a monster-sized company like Google. Whether or not 37signals had a strong legal case or not, Google could have easily stretched out the legal proceedings until 37signals crumbled.

But of course, on the other hand, this could be really concerning if you extrapolate Google's actions. HuddleChat was said not to be affiliated with Google, yet they pulled it down. Obviously there was some affiliation given that the developers behind it were Google employees. But, what happens when an application is published in AppEngine that is not developed by Google engineers, but causes a conflict with another company or group? Does Google reserve the right to censor these types of applications as well?

That is probably extrapolating things way too much, but it does take a tiny bit of shine off the whole thing.

There is a Facebook group petitioning Google to bring HuddleChat back. I don't think I'll join that group right now. I'm going to wait a few days to see how Google reacts to the reaction they caused and hope for the best.


Thanks!

Eric.