Google App Engine Launched!

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  <a href="http://code.google.com/appengine/"><img src="/space/logo_en_appengine.gif" /></a>
</div>

If you've talked to me about work during the last couple years, I've probably
downplayed it, resorted to generalities, or just changed the subject. No
longer! We've finally
[taken the wraps](http://code.google.com/campfire/) off our project,
[Google App Engine](http://code.google.com/appengine/). From the
[docs](http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/whatisgoogleappengine.html):

> Google App Engine lets you run your web applications on Google's
> infrastructure. App Engine applications are easy to build, easy to maintain,
> and easy to scale as your traffic and data storage needs grow. With App
> Engine, there are no servers to maintain: You just upload your application,
> and it's ready to serve your users.

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  <a href="http://code.google.com/appengine/"><img src="/space/appengine.jpg" /></a>
</div>

Personally, I spent most of my time writing the
[datastore](http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/datastore/overview.html),
both the backend and much of the Python API. When I found extra time,
though, I had a lot of fun writing apps and libraries on top of App Engine. I
particularly enjoyed writing an
[interactive shell](http://shell.appspot.com/), an
[OpenID provider](http://openid-provider.appspot.com/), and a
[full text search library](http://code.google.com/appengine/articles/bulkload.html).

We've been excited about the project since the beginning, and we can't wait
to see what people do with it. If you're a developer and you have some spare
time, please
[try it out](http://code.google.com/appengine/) and
[let us know](http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine) what you think!