re the Pricing model. An App Engine App Store along the lines of Apple's iPhone app store, would surely be a winner for everyone! This would be a fantastic feature.
Although I would like to think Google would be a little more generous in their ToCs re the commission they take. On May 6, 10:19 pm, Andy Burke <abu...@bitflood.org> wrote: > Hi, > > My name is Andy Burke. I have a background in the video game > industry, but I also dabble in GAE. About a year ago I got excited > about developing a GAE-based issue tracker. GAE seems like the > perfect platform for such an application. I began working, got my > issues into the datastore, got some rudimentary milestone support, > email integration, all that jazz. Then I started thinking about how I > was going to roll this application out. I realized that I'd need to > add a lot of complexity to my data model to keep different 'domains' > separate (a domain being something like a company who can have any > number of projects in the system). Additionally, I'd end up, as the > developer of the application, with access to all these different > domains' data. Why would a company want to use my issue tracking > software if they knew I could gain access to all their internal > issues? I'm just some guy off the street, I'm not Google, why should > they trust me? > > After thinking about all this, I opened an issue w/ GAE: > > http://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=1206 > > The features I'm effectively asking for in the issue are: > > - Each google apps domain should have its own datastore > - Each google apps domain should be able to install an app created > with GAE into its own domain > > Now, this seems like it would be great for developers and great for > Google: > > - It would make it a lot easier to develop apps that might be used by > lots of different organizations, simplifying GAE developers' datastore > models > - It would mean that billing for application usage could be per-domain > in addition to per-app > - Eg: if I make a really popular app, I don't have to pay google for > the bandwidth and storage, the domains that install and use it do > - Google could build out a way that GAE-developed apps could be > installed into domains with various pricing models: > - One-time cost > - Subscription based > - Per-transaction > - Google could skim money off the top, the rest would be passed on to > the app developer, ala the iPhone App Store or Facebook credits > > Let me give you a little imaginary scenario that demonstrates what I'd > like to see happen with GAE: > > I develop my issue tracking software and it's really nice. I set my > app up to use per-domain datastores. I also set my app to be > available for a monthly subscription of $10, with the first month > free. So now people who use Google apps for their domains can install > my app into their domain and try it out for the first month. If they > want to keep using it, they'll start paying $10/month through Google > checkout (or whatever service Google provides). All their issues are > stored in their own domain. Even as the developer, I don't have > access to them and they don't have to worry about privacy issues from > me. If they generate a ton of datastore queries because they're a > huge company, they get billed for that, not me. Google takes their > cut from the subscription payment, say 30%. Google's happily getting > $3/month for each domain using my app. I'm happily getting $7 a month > and not worrying about the datastore for all these different > companies. The company that's using my app is happy because their > data is all private. They're also really happy they hosted with > Google apps because they realize they have access to tons of software > as a service that's easy to install in their domain, maintains their > privacy and adds value to using Google apps. > > This seems like such a huge win for Google, GAE developers and Google > Apps customers: why has this issue been languishing for over a year? > > I'd really love to hear if these features have any chance of being > implemented. I haven't done much on GAE with regard to apps that > could be used as SaaS in the last year because it seems so daunting to > handle the datastore/bandwidth usage costs of GAE, the separation of > data by domain, the amount of work I'd need to do to be able to bill a > domain for their usage, etc. It seems like all that would be much > better handled in the GAE and Google Apps themselves. > > If these features are implemented, I'll be developing SaaS on GAE in a > heartbeat and I'm sure lots of other developers would be, too. It > just seems like such a win for GAE, Google Apps and GAE developers. > If you're a GAE developer and you agree, please make sure to star the > issue: > > http://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=1206 > > Thanks, > andy > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Google App Engine" group. > To post to this group, send email to google-appeng...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > google-appengine+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group > athttp://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google App Engine" group. To post to this group, send email to google-appeng...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to google-appengine+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine?hl=en.
