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With the recent big announcement of the preview of Google App Engine, a further addition to the cloud computing field that is sure to make an impact of some sort, a minor scandal has erupted today in the media: A company called 37Signals claims that the App Engine's HuddleChat application was a copycat of 37Signals' Campfire offering.

The similarities were first reported in ReadWriteWeb, where Josh Catone interviewed 37Signals about the issue.

Google has since pulled down HuddleChat, but Tom Lee of the Techdirt Insight Community says that the whole deal was much ado about nothing. HuddleChat was hardly a key component of the Google App Engine and was merely intended as a demo app, written by a Google employee, to demonstrate the abilities of the App Engine. Lee points out a potential irony in that 37Signals was accused of copying from others when it created Campfire as well and that the whole incident is unlikely to have any impact on Google's overall offering.

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