Google rolls out Google Apps Marketplace

Microsoft's Office suite may have its work cut out following the release

today of search giant Google's new business Apps Store.

The service, called Google Apps Marketplace, will integrate with its Google

Apps software suite which is currently used by more than two million businesses.

The Google Apps Marketplace will be open to developers and more than 50

companies have been involved in the creation of business apps on the platform.

It will offer business software such as a project management application, a

tax and payroll program, an electronic fax program, an e-signature service, and

a design tool for Google Docs.

Third-party applications include the following, according to a

blog

by Chris Vander Mey, product manager for Google Apps Marketplace:

Intuit Online Payroll: A small business application that

offers business owners a new way to run payroll, pay taxes and let employees

check paystubs using one integrated online office environment.

Manymoon: A free work and project management application

for Google Apps that allows businesses and teams to easily share information

including tasks, projects, documents, status updates and links with co-workers,

customers and partners.

Professional Services Connect (PS Connect): This

cloud-based app from Appirio pulls contextually relevant information on people,

projects, customers and transactions from a user's domain and puts it inside a

Gmail message, allowing business people to make better-informed decisions.

JIRA Studio: A hosted software development suite from

Atlassian, it enables software developers to flow naturally between Gmail,

Google Calendar, Google Docs and other design and development tools to better

track and manage project issues and workflow.

Charges for participating developers in Google Apps Marketplace will be a

fixed $100 (£67) for unlimited applications.

Google Apps currently includes Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs, and

the new applications store will be competing with Microsoft's Office Web Apps

and the new version of Office 10, which launches in June.

Some of the third-party applications will include features that integrate

with business's back-end data stores.

Taken from here