Cloud computing gets better, with Google Apps Marketplace

By Abhinav Lal | Updated on 10-Mar-2010

10-Mar-2010

Google announced the launch of Google Apps Marketplace on its official blog last evening, giving home and business users a chance to enhance their cloud computing experience with hundreds of new applications made by more than 50 companies for a variety of requirements, from accounting to travel planning.

Millions of users and more than 2 million enterprises have switched to Google’s cloud computing solutions since it was launched, getting the advantage of anytime and anywhere applications without any hassles of purchasing, upgrading and maintaining. But, quite a few of these users felt they were limited by the very finite number of applications, so resorted to multiple vendors alongside Google. While this may have been a workable solution, it wasn’t long before users were dissatisfied by the tedious nature of needing to log in separately and switch between applications that are accessible through multiple vendors. The ball was in Google’s court now, and the task of satisfying their loyal users as well as new ones was not a simple. But they were up for the challenge, and now offer Google Apps Marketplace, a single source for you to purchase and access applications which are made by different vendors.

According to the blog, enterprises will enjoy many new features and have greater control and access to their applications. Once third party applications are installed to a company’s domain, they will “work like native Google applications”. They can also, with administrator approval, “interact with calendars, emails, documents and/or contact data to increase productivity”. Administrators will also have the ability to “manage the applications from the familiar Google Apps control panel”. Solving the multiple vendor dilemma, Google offers its users “OpenID integration”, through which they can “access the other applications without signing in separately to each. The Google Apps Marketplace eliminates the worry about software updates, keeping track of different passwords and manual syncing and sharing of data, thereby increasing business productivity and lessening frustrations for users and IT administrators alike”. Third-party applications will also be made secure by Google’s proprietary “oAuth”.

Application developers also have it easier than before. At Google’s “Campfire One” event, developers were shown how easy it is to design and install apps using Google’s Apps Marketplace. Developers will have access to over 25 million users and businesses, and will be required to pay a nominal one-time fee of $100, apart from 20% of the revenue.

While businesses are the biggest users of Google Apps presently, home users will now have a fast-growing number of applications for them to use, with developers beginning to churn out more each day.

Developers interested should check out Google’s Code blog on this, and enterprise users might want to read this. Finally, check out the Google Apps Marketplace directly, at http://google.com/appsmarketplace.

Abhinav Lal

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