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Google Takes Down HuddleChat After Complaints [Warning]

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the all-chat-clients-look-the-same dept.

desmondhaynes writes "There were striking similarities between one of Google's App Engine demos, HuddleChat (a real-time chat application) and the Campfire app from 37Signals. Google has taken HuddleChat down from the App Engine app gallery." Google explains: 'The App Engine team was looking for some sample apps to help kick the tires on their new system, so we invited Googlers to build some as side projects. A couple of our colleagues here built HuddleChat in their spare time because they wanted to share work within their team more easily and thought persistent web chat would do the trick. We've heard some complaints from the developer community, though, so rather than divert attention from Google App Engine itself, we thought it better to just take HuddleChat down.'" We noted the launch of Google's App Engine yesterday.

Update: 04/10 14:51 GMT by KD : A reader wrote in to warn that the link in this article is infected. Windows users beware, and have your AV up-to-date.

4 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. Re:37Signals should learn to innovate, not whine by StallmanHearties · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is also ignoring the issue that this company is selling the software as a service. Which means you are paying for timesharing. If it were free software you could install it on your machine and provide a service to people you care about. You could also ensure your privacy by installing it on your own machine. Timesharing is generally bad because it means you have no freedom to change and 37signals has long had a history of ignoring customer feature requests.

  2. more importantly.. by thermian · · Score: 4, Informative

    How is their product even saleable?

    I mean, how much can they seriously expect to make from a cut down chat client when there are a gazzillion billion and two chat clients already out there?

    --
    A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
  3. Re:Whiners by NoTheory · · Score: 5, Informative
    No, if 37signals business model is that trivial.

    The complaints are ironic if what Zed Shaw says is true:

    Well, silly boys and girls, rails-core ripped off the idea and probably most of the workings for Campfire from NextApp Echo2 ChatClient Demo. I know this because I was in the rails-core IRC channel and I showed them how cool this Echo2 framework was, including that chat demo. A few weeks later they had Campfire and since they say it took them two weeks to write it, Iâ(TM)m guessing they got lots of inspiration.

    --
    There are lives at stake here!
  4. here is what started it all by hashmap · · Score: 5, Informative

    "We're flattered Google thinks Campfire is a great product," said Jason Fried, 37signals CEO and co-founder. "We're just disappointed that they stooped so low to basically copy it feature for feature, layout for layout. We thought that would be beneath Google, but maybe its time to reevaluate what they stand for." From http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080408-123318