Third-party developers can integrate with Google's own applications
Google will launch Google Apps Marketplace, providing a venue for third-party, cloud-based applications to supplement Google's own online applications.

The program enables integrations with such applications as Google Gmail, Documents, Sites and Calendar. All told, the effort begins with 50 vendors participating, including Atlassian, NetSuite, Skytap and Zoho.

"Tonight, what we're doing is we're announcing a business-to-business marketplace for Google Apps users, where the idea is that we want to help users get more applications for Google Apps from third-party developers," said Chris Vander Mey, Google senior product manager, in an interview on Tuesday afternoon. Among the applications is a small business payroll system from Intuit, called Intuit Online Payroll, and Box.net's self-named content management system.

Users can link to an application via the UI in Google applications, offering benefits like single sign-on and sharing of data between Google Apps and third-party applications. Centralized administration also is featured.

"As you purchase applications, they're automatically integrated into your domain," Vander Mey said. Applications can be installed within a domain via a four-click process. Google Apps Marketplace could be compared to the Apple App Store for iPhone applications or the Salesforce.com Force.com cloud application platform, said Vander Mey.

At Box.net, an official cited integration benefits of Google Apps marketplace.

"Basically, we're now pretty deeply integrated with Google Apps," said Jennifer Grant, vice president of marketing at Box.net. Users can access Box.net directly from applications such as Gmail, she said.

"Before, they would have to go to Box.net as a separate application," Grant said.  Users can add Google Docs documents to a Box.net workflow and send out email alerts.

Participation in Google Apps Marketplace is open to customers of the Premier, Standard and Education editions of Google Apps. Applications are linked to the marketplace via REST Web services and APIs including OpenID and OAuth.

"We expect [the marketplace is] going to significantly help Google Apps adoption and also help adoption of our partner apps," Vander Mey said. "We're going to bring 25 million users to these partner companies."

Google began offering online applications five years ago, having reached the 25 million-user mark last weekend, said Vender Mey. More than 2 million businesses use the applications, he said.

Google will pass on 80 percent of revenues from Google Apps Market sales to participating partners and keep the remaining 20 percent.

Some of the other application partners include Aviary, Batchbook, Bookfresh, Expensify, OfficeSync, Shoeboxed.com, and SuccessFactors.

Google is bringing the app store concept to business cloud computing, giving software developers a storefront for Google Apps customers.
The Google Apps Marketplace will allow Google Apps users to purchase third-party applications to run atop the Google Apps suite, said Vic Gundotra, vice president of engineering for Google. Developers will have to pay a one-time $100 fee to list their applications in the store, and Google will get a 20 percent cut of all applications sold through the store, he said.

Google's interest in such a store was first revealed last month by The Wall Street Journal. The idea is that although Google has an army of capable software developers, it can't hope to anticipate the needs of every single Google Apps users. Third-party developers can fill those gaps and make Google Apps more useful to businesses with unique needs that don't quite fit into the Google Apps suite.

Take payroll, for example. Google isn't in the enterprise-resource planning software market (yet), but Intuit is, said Martin Gates, chief technology officer for online payroll at Intuit. He demonstrated how Google Apps users can integrate an Intuit-developed Web-based payroll application that's linked with Google Apps, allowing employees to download their pay stubs simply by clicking on an icon in their Google Calendars.

Scott Farquhar, CEO of software tools company Atlassian, showed how Google Apps can be integrated directly into his company's software development tools. For example, software developers using Atlassian's project-management tools can have Gmail, Google Calendar, and Gchat applications integrated directly into the software development tool, so they don't have to leave that window to check their e-mail or chat with colleagues.

Google wants to encourage enterprise software customers to think about using Web-based applications as opposed to more expensive desktop-based applications for their critical business applications. It's both a competitive move against bitter rivals like Microsoft and a bid to cement the idea that the Web is the software development platform of the future.

In order to convince more businesses to make that investment, however, it needs to offer everything a business customer gets from their current software in the Web-based alternative. Famously conservative IT managers aren't likely to make the switch to Google Apps--although almost 2 million businesses already have, Gundotra said--unless Google can assure them of the flexibility of its approach.
Developers will be required to list their applications with the Google Apps Marketplace, Glazer said. However, Google is not imposing any sort of revenue model on those developers, allowing them to charge per application, per user, or on a subscription basis for the applications they sell that are integrated with Google Apps, he said.
Applications are available immediately through the marketplace. Google and its partners are also testing ways to integrate third-party applications directly into Gmail, allowing users to access snippets of their enterprise apps directly from their Gmail inboxes. These "contextual gadgets" will arrive at a later date, Glazer said.