ordinaryman

  Can Google Wallet schedule your weekly/monthly/periodic shopping list 
  for the following items from <your-regular-store>?

  - <item-1> - <quantity>
  - <item-2> - <quantity>
  - ..

  [Yes, schedule now] [No] [Change item-list and schedule]

iFreeTools Creator : http://creator.ifreetools.com

Software is turning into a commodity and will eventually be priced like one.

Requires nothing more than a Google/Google-Apps user account to get going.

You can define Entities ("table"/"sheets") and Attributes ("columns"/"fields") to get working with your database app within a few minutes.

Integrates with Google Contacts (import/upload), Google Docs (attach docs to database records), Google Maps (mark and search for records based on geographic location). Google Calendar (export events/tasks-like data) and email integration are coming up later.

The web-app can be mapped to your own domain like http://app.yourdomain.com (using Google Apps).

Other features include :

  - Authorization Profiles for fine grain access control up to field level.
  - Custom Views to filter data matching your criteria.
  - Custom Actions for single click edits.
  - Automated Audit of all write operations
  - Bulk Export & Import of data as CSV files.
  - Support for drop-down choices, 
      look-up fields (references) and 
      image fields (with auto thumbnails for list view)
  ..and more.

Check here : "Clickpass harvests users’ address books".. http://blog.teampatent.com/2009/03/30/clickpass-harvests-add...

Edit : updated with link.

I also believe competition which facilitates such migrations not only validates the space and the standard (write for GAE, you can host it on Google or on AWS), but also helps drive innovation and service levels.

$0.10 per thousand in SES -> $0.0001 per email recipient // Same as in GAE.

You can send 2,000 messages for free each day when you call Amazon SES from an Amazon EC2 instance directly or through AWS Elastic Beanstalk. // Same as in GAE.

This, along with the recent AWS Elastic Beanstalk release and Amazon's intent of making Java hosting easy and without restrictions (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2119104) all point to the day when I will be able to upload my Python app on GAE directly onto a pre-configured Amazon service (possibly making use of AppScale or TyphoonAE), which internally uses all these new services with free quotas.

Or you can build a custom CRM app, using iFreeTools Creator : http://creator.ifreetools.com .

With iFreeTools Creator, you can either import the entities and attributes which you require from the CRM data-model : http://code.google.com/p/crm-apps-datamodel/ or define your own data-model too.

// I write code for this app.

Check out: http://blogs.ifreetools.com/2010/03/building-simple-bug-trac...

The overview of the steps involved..

- Edit App Settings to re-brand, set time-zone, etc.,. (optional)

- Add Bug Entity

- Add Attributes for Bug

- Start using the Bug Tracker

Personally though, recursion helps me in recruitment process as this is a quick test to filter candidates.

This service will be helpful for pre-generating reports having queries which span across multiple tables (JOINS) and which can use aggregate queries (SUM/COUNT/MAX/MIN/etc.,.), both of which are currently not possible with Google App Engine's BigTable. But with Google already working on full-featured SQL database support (http://code.google.com/appengine/business/roadmap.html), I don't think I will use it for such an use-case too.

Sample walk-through :: Building a Store Locator type Google Maps app over GAE, using iFreeTools : http://blogs.ifreetools.com/2010/11/building-store-locator-t...

I guess you are confusing the Google App Engine's App Gallery : http://appgallery.appspot.com/, which has been removed for some reasons and the Google Apps Marketplace : http://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace, which is the actual App Store, where you could pay and install apps.

App Gallery was just a GAE application show-case center, and most likely was causing confusion to Google Apps customers too.

I am still a developer who trusts GAE (my app was on the appgallery and is also listed on marketplace) and believe that they will continue to compete for developer mind-share, as they proved yet again with this performance update.

Let go of the fear, uncertainty & doubt and hop on to try an app. You will like it too.

(By the way, the above site was my gift for my son on his fourth birthday)

Also, I guess Google folks would post about the performance boost later.

After making an entry into the top 50 skills in Q1 2010, Google App Engine, the cloud-based application development platform, showed the single largest increase in demand with over a 10x growth quarter over quarter. With this increase, Google App Engine (#37) moved past Amazon Web Services (#40) as the cloud platform highest in demand in Q2.

From : http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2...

Currently though, the rankings have changed a bit.. http://www.elance.com/p/online-employment-report-it.html

Depending on whether one wants to not go hungry (or) have some decent enough food (or) experience dinner, they can choose a category of food and price point.

So at last, price = cost + profit is still valid.

Unlike in cooking, the effort put in to creating software is one-time effort, whether you do it for a single person as a professional service (or) if you can make it generic enough for reuse (or) with if can be built with multi-tenant capability, along with online customization features. The talent level differs for each kind of deliverable, but it can at last be factored in as a cost.

This cost is becoming relatively much lesser, when compared to the recurring costs required to keep the software running on a hosted platform.

So, why not just price the software apps based on what really is a major cost factor and in terms of those cost-units (resource used), instead of trying to fit in a model which is not very natural (in terms of number of users, number of records - which is hard to do right, without over-charging most users), was what I liked to be discussed.

Thanks for your insight, Patrick.

// By the way, I had requested Patrick to share his thoughts and he was quick post to them here. Though I thanked him by mail and up-voted his answer at once, just wanted to mention a word here, about his quick response.

You can also create a simple tool yourself, to match your requirements using http://creator.ifreetools.com

Applies for both CRM & Creator : - Free (ad-supported). - Works with Google Accounts or Google Apps user accounts. - Hosted over Google App Engine, custom deployment available. - Can be mapped to your sub-domain using Google Apps, for free.

In action (animated gif, 186 KB) : http://crm.ifreetools.com/static/images/blog/generating-rand...

For now, the feature (Bulk emails using email-templates) is in preview mode : http://blogs.ifreetools.com/2010/05/feature-preview-email-te...

iFreeTools Creator is free and ad-supported for low volumes. Custom deployments ($99/year or $9/month for up to 25 users) are also available - so that you can make use of Google's free quota (2000 emails/day) and buy more as required directly from Google. (my email in my HN profile, if you are interested)

Interestingly, I did not start out to build a replacement for Excel, but to offer customization features for my CRM app. Removing the default CRM entities (or "tables", if you would like to call it that), provides a slate wherein you can build your own custom database apps.

Like, a bug-tracker : http://blogs.ifreetools.com/2010/03/building-simple-bug-trac...

Or, may be, a property management app : http://blogs.ifreetools.com/2010/01/build-apps-online-over-g...

Some effect, that!

http://blogs.ifreetools.com/2010/05/feature-preview-email-te...

The app is not open-source - but free with resource restrictions and ads. Custom deployments are available for as low as $99/year (yes, per year), which enables you to use the free quota (upto 2000 emails / day) and purchase additional resources as required directly from Google.

Works with Google / Google Apps accounts.

I quit my job betting on it.

You could actually build pretty decent services over GAE, while remaining within the free quota, if you can be efficient with resources. Billing rates are affordable too.

I am currently working on an ad-supported CRM (http://crm.ifreetools.com) and online application builder (http://creator.ifreetools.com) over Google App Engine. Both are multi-tenant apps and iFreeTools Creator is probably the only online app builder which enables building customizable apps online over Google App Engine.

The platform does have its restrictions, primarily to enable apps to scale well. If one can get comfortable with working within those restrictions, it gets easier.

Wordpress clone

You should try out Bloggart : http://github.com/Arachnid/bloggart

..and its accompanying posts, aiming to also introduce developers to the GAE platform : http://blog.notdot.net/2009/10/Writing-a-blog-system-on-App-...

Read about it at.. http://startups.in/India/Edutainment/Jambav--Indias-Magic-Ki...