Re:AppEngine doesn’t fit the needs of startups on the runway
by grandalf on Saturday June 06, 2009 @01:06PM
(#644904)
True. There isn't currently a great path away from app engine, but there is nothing about app engine that prevents someone from building one.
As for user auth, I'd suggest setting up a table that stores the user's email address and a random hash, so if google auth stops working they can just "reset their password" and you can use your own auth system w/ the same email address as the google account.
My project is not any more on shaky ground than Google's own business. Search engines or any service that lets users upload or link content is prone to cease and desist letters. Only very recently there was a post here on HN where someone complained that 6 tweets were uploaded to a competitor's site by a user.
And then there's Google's user authentication service, which is very convenient. I can't think of a way to migrate that one without asking all my users to create new accounts and provide their google login password so I can check whether they are the legitimate owner of that account.