A few days ago Google App Engine was launched, a new platform for hosting (and scaling) your web applications. The platform received much attention in the blogosphere and of course comparisons with Amazons EC2 were quickly made in major tech blogs.

We were especially excited to hear that Google had chosen the Python for their App Engine implementation. Our project is largely build in Python using the Django framework… So we rushed towards Google’s website to get beta access, and have our lead engineer test drive the new system! First impression: although it’s still very much beta, it looks very promising. Our lead will write an in depth post about the App Engine and Django in general, as soon as he has some free time (which should be somewhere around 2011 )

The App Engine definitely opens up additional opportunities for a quick international roll-out and our world domination aspirations with YouTellMe… And aside from our own project, the attention for Python in general is also a very positive thing. The author and ‘Benevolent Dictator for Life’ of the Python language, Guido van Rossum, speaks about the bright future for Python and the Django framework in this interview (in Dutch). He hopes that the Google platform will draw more people towards the Python language, and we share his optimism!

A video of the campfire launch of the Google App Engine: