>> MOUTRAN: Hi. I'm Cyril Moutran and I'm the founder and CEO of Twazzup.
>> HARDEL: And I'm Hugo Hardel. I'm also a founder of Twazzup and I focus mostly on business
development, marketing. We have a third team member who's not here today unfortunately.
His name is Stefan Repakis (ph) and he's our main technical guy. And let me talk briefly
about the product, Twazzup, what we--what we've built. Twazzup is a real-time search
engine. That's the short version. I think it would help if I go a little bit into the
long version and talk a little bit about the Twazzup experience which is unlike the traditional
search engine experience. It's more like a broadcasting experience if you want. So you're
going to Twazzup and the experience is if there is a real-time event somewhere, or if
there is a conference somewhere, you can sort of track that conference through a hash tag
or a special custom page. And you're going to see the messages from the people at the
conference or on-site at the--at the event. You're going to the pictures that they've
picked on-site that will show up in real-time. You're going to see the things. And so the
experience that's created is, you know, it's sort of the ability to follow a conference
or follow a news event from your computer. And it's very connected because it's powered
by the people if you want. So, you know, it's more a broadcasting experience than a search
experience but the technology behind is really a search technology.
>> Okay, great. So how long did it take you guys to build Twazzup?
>> MOUTRAN: Well, so when we, when we initially selected the App Engine, we started with a
prototype and we were--it was probably about three days and so it was very quick. But it
really took us about 10 weeks to launch--to launch officially the site. And it was, like,
we launched in April--mid-April, and since then, we've been working on the site for about
six months. >> Okay. So how did you guys use App Engine?
>> MOUTRAN: So we started with some of the basic APIs. We used memcached a lot in our
first version. We used URL Fetch and, earlier, at the start, you know, mostly, we used system
management but then we decided to, you know, let's grasp--grasp and we pushed. A couple
weeks ago, we used it a lot more and our evaluation is we need a lot more.
>> HARDEL: And I think, if I can add to that, we use--we probably use few of the many APIs
that are very available in the App Engine but we're very satisfied users of the few
APIs that we use. >> Okay, great. So why did you guys choose
App Engine? >> MOUTRAN: So when we started this project,
we wanted to have somewhat a replaceable platform so we looked at AWS, the Amazon offering and
at Google. At the time, Google only had a bite in but I think the combination of how
fast our first prototype went and also the flexibility that we saw in the App Engine--and
then also we tried to Google for our scanning (ph) and I think we've been very--we've not
been disappointed at all, that being the case. >> HARDEL: And scanning (ph) for us is actually
huge in the sense that, like I said, the experience is very event-driven. So when you have an
event like the election in Iran where a lot of the news were flowing through searchable
media. All of a sudden, we see a jump of traffic. I think it was--you know, from day one to
day two, it was more than 10 times the traffic we had seen. So the ability to ramp up traffic
without really thinking about it was absolutely huge, absolutely a big, big benefit.
>> Okay, great. So what are some future clients you have for things that use App Engine new
features, things like that? >> MOUTRAN: So, we've been, we've been ongoing,
doing a lot on the App Engine so we--and the way towards that is we need realities (ph).
It's a mesh of several senses. We do--I think we do the search on Twazzup and we use a lot,
as I said, of API, but we also built our own set of senses. So we have multiple app engines
consisting only of the senses and we keep adding more and more layers. So, so far, I
think it's on a development platform. And we'll definitely support that and we'll hopefully
move more and more, you know, through time (ph).
>> Okay. So what are some things that you really like about App Engine?
>> MOUTRAN: Okay, on my side, you know, the thing I like the most is I don't have to think
about a couple of things. You know, like I used to do, you know, in our previous startup
project, I used to do all the sys admin (ph). And with the App Engine, it's really is a
one-button, you know, deploy (ph). It's also very--the fact that you can deploy many versions
with minimum interruption of service for the users makes a very, very big difference. I
guess, in our case, as we are today in this stage of our applications, we give and meet
(ph) multiples times a week, and, sometimes, you know, multiples a day when we have to
respond to things very quickly. So that's one thing; I think the scalability, as we
said before, I think that's the big thing, something good for us. I think of all the
places, usually, the platform is used, in a way, the fact that you don't need to worry
about (ph) the equipment because you really have to just think about the application area
and nothing really be off--we know that. And that's the main, main thing, I think...
>> HARDEL: Yeah, and I think, you know, if look at Twazzup, it's a three-people team
and we can definitely do without the other (ph) hand, and the App Engine is really, really
helpful. There are, I think--you know, it's difficult to make that assessment, but I think,
of the time, we've probably saved hundreds of dollars (ph), you know, not having to manage
the environment because it largely manages itself; not having to fine-tune the configuration--the
configuration for performance because it's already built-in. You know, seeing our size,
that was, like, it was very, very, very helpful. >> Okay, great. So what are some things you'd
like to see in App Engine? >> MOUTRAN: Well, I think we have the right
things that we have already. There are--there are a couple of things that people could use.
And also, you know, if we do a search, a letter scroll (ph) is basically nice. And if you
would take advantage, we have some ideas for the future you could use. I think...
>> HARDEL: How about wildcard domains? >> MOUTRAN: Oh, yes, wildcard domain. That’s--that's
obviously two applications, but we do, the way it works and it's built, Iran's organizers,
celebrities could own through Twazzup site. And so for that, they have a need to the wildcard
domain. A manual configuration would be very nice.
>> Okay, great. So do you have any tips or things that you've learned that you would
like to pass on to other people who use App Engine?
>> HARDEL: Use it. >> MOUTRAN: Very easy. I mean, initially,
we ran into it mostly as, for us, more learning about cloud computing. If you have a project
where, like, a startup project is a good example where you--you have to do very interactive
development--packaging, if it comes to that (ph). It's a--it's a platform where you can
go multiples times a day. It's also a platform where you could take your code base--it varies
with each code base using two or three experiments. You could use free packaged (ph) instances
and then you could be deciding which one is the best process. So another point is we can
use that flexibility. And I will courage you to use it.
>> HARDEL: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more.
>> All right, well, thank you, guys. >> MOUTRAN: Thank you.
>> HARDEL: Thank you--happy to be here.