Fridaygram: App Engine search, rock-tossing chimp, man vs. beast

May 11, 2012


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By Scott Knaster, Google Developers Blog Editor

Google App Engine has a well-deserved reputation for regularly adding cool new features and other improvements. This week the team launched full-text search, which has been a hotly desired feature since the earliest days of App Engine. The new App Engine Search API enables you to search documents using lots of options, including searching specific fields and creating results snippets. At Google, it’s always fun to build new frontiers in search.

The App Engine Search API is a powerful tool indeed, but it probably couldn't defend you against an aggressive chimp that likes to gather and throw stones. The chimp in question, Santino, has apparently been gathering stones for years and then throwing them at intruders. Scientists have debated whether Santino is actually planning for upcoming tantrums when collecting stones. After years of close observation, researchers still disagree on whether Santino is a premeditated stone-thrower. But there is plenty of fascinating evidence, such as Santino stashing his stones beneath piles of hay where nobody will see them. Cat out of the bag, Santino?

Finally, we direct you to this remixed video of a different, stone-free interspecies confrontation. It's weird and funny, and it has special effects – what more could you want? It's a perfect way to spend a minute and ten seconds of your Friday or weekend.


Each week we publish Fridaygram, a post with cool Google and non-Google stuff you might have missed during the week. Fridaygram items aren't necessarily related to developer topics; they’re just interesting to us nerds. As for moving from App Engine Search to Santino the plotting chimp, we’re just trying to maintain our practice of tortured transitions.