I think the idea was that Google should provide everyone with 250K servers, dark fiber, and a pony, for free, forever; when it turned out there were some restrictions, all the jilted idealists immediately went ballistic.
Agreed. I think that the perception is that Google's biz model is less than transparent to the uninitiated consumer who doesn't understand what, exactly they are giving up in exchange for any one of hundreds of free services on the internet (eyeballs to advertiser, privacy) It's for the good of these huddled masses that the mavens breathlessly shuttle the news to the masses. "It's people! Google makes money by delivering people!"
Most the people complaining are disatisfied because they want access to the service without the lock-in of the platform. They're the internet equivalent of a warning on the nut covered M&Ms package that says "Warning, contains nuts."
They won't be satisfied until the service contains no chocolate covered lock-in.
Well, from my perspective (and after using EC2 to great effect) I was just a bit disappointed that Google went down this route. Its not that its 'bad' but that its not as good as I was expecting. Everyone expects great things from Google so its difficult for them to impress now
Companies have been saying "write for our platform, it's all good, we won't screw you over in the future, honest" for years. Sometimes it's true.
I'm not sure what they're "up front" about. What have they said, exactly? The most prominent thing I see is "preview", and I have no idea if that's supposed to sound more or less permanent than their typical subtitle, "beta".
I think what concerns people is the combination of (a) it's a very different platform than just about anything else, so you have to really commit, and (b) there's no guarantee, no roadmap, no nothing. Oh, and (c) Google will keep track of your users for you (how nice of them!).
It looks like a hiring tool. They like to buy companies with hot products, which is a good way to get hot programmers, but these programmers didn't (and couldn't) know the unique Google infrastructure. This is the logical solution to that.
On a personal note, I go have a beer with my friends at Amazon and they tell me "such-and-such a service will definitely be around for at least another year, and probably much longer, and we're planning X and Y and Z for it". But on the rare occasions my friends at Google hang out with me, they barely even tell me what project they're on; everything is ultra-secret. The whole corporate culture makes me suspicious.
"But on the rare occasions my friends at Google hang out with me, they barely even tell me what project they're on; everything is ultra-secret. The whole corporate culture makes me suspicious."
I wonder how google inculcates this culture in its developers? Serious question.
Most developers I know are more like the amazon devs than the google ones. Not that they blab about what they are doing to all and sundry, but most of my friends don't have any problems talking about what they are doing.
Interestingly enough I haven't encountered this "secrecy" in my friends who work at Google Bangalore. I guess Indians are a more garrulous people! (or my friends really trust me).
Google has been very up front with what it expects and what it will provide; I don't think there has been any shadiness on their part.