Google App Engine Launches: Goes Directly After Amazon

Update: tried to get a beta key but if they were handing out 10,000 of them, they went in about 3 seconds if that.

MG at VentureBeat has details on a new product launch tonight from Google called the "Google App Engine" (link will work after midnight). MG notes, "With this new release, Google is aiming squarely at Amazon Web Services (AWS), specifically the popular Simple Storage Service (S3), SimpleDB and Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) services." Brady notes that the app must be in Python for now.

The first 10,000 developers to signup using the link above at midnight will get access to the Google App Engine. The accounts come with enough free power to handle up to five million pageviews a month. Pricing past that has not been release as of yet. You know it's the crack model - give them a bit for free so they get hooked for life.

While development language information hasn't been shared yet, you can assume it will be robust. Will this be enough to take out Amazon? Leave your thoughts in the comments.  My first question would be to get answers around the privacy of the information in the apps. Let's assume the pricing is the same as Amazon's, what else does Google stand to gain?

We've been using the Amazon S3 service for storage and static file sharing and except for the one outage last month, it's been rock solid. Pages load faster on CN and our monthly bill is less than a couple of extra foam coffee drinks at Starbucks.