Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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.

2 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Please help me out here by Otter · · Score: 4, Interesting
    So, what is the possibility of Google taking down google docs, in response to complaints from MS, or some other online office software provider?

    As best I understand, the Ruby on Rails cultists are one of the main developer groups they're counting on as App Engine customers, so they don't want to offend its leader. Annoying Microsoft doesn't cost them anyone they want to work with, and might help.

    --
    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
  2. Sour grapes. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    37Signals is the marketing force behind Ruby on Rails, and Google's AppEngine is heavily geared toward Django, which the RoR world seems to consider a big threat due to Django's allegedly superior robustness and speed. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd spent their time since the announcement of AppEngine looking for something to act martyred about and hopefully redirect some buzz toward their own offering.

    In which case Google probably did the right thing disabling the trivial app before the buzz hijack could succeed.

    Or maybe I've been in this industry too long and I'm just way bitter, I don't know.