June summary of Apps Marketplace

Last month Google  announced Google Apps Marketplace Staff Picks, an effort to highlight personal picks from the Marketplace team that have a combination of great functionality and ease of use due to their deep integrations with Google Apps.

Staff Picks are announced on the @GoogleAtWork Twitter account using #mpstaffpick, promoted on the Marketplace and summarized on the Enterprise Blog. We’ll also summarize the recent Staff Picks on this blog, with a stronger developer focus.

Recent Staff Picks are integrated with Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, Docs, Talk, Apps Script and more:

  • Mavenlink (slideshow) – a project management solution for professional services delivery. Integrates with Calendar, Contacts and Docs plus provides a lot of great getting started information for new users.
  • Solve360 (slideshow) – a CRM that integrates with Google Apps to help manage client projects. Provides a full-featured Gmail Contextual Gadget. Contacts sync is 2-way, and they also provide Google Apps Script code that allows customers to use Spreadsheets forms for lead generation, automatically populating submissions into Solve360.
  • Smartsheet (slideshow) – a project management and collaboration tool based on a spreadsheet concept that makes it easy to keep track of tasks and deadlines. Great Gmail, Calendar, Docs and Contacts integration, allowing users to easily import data from and export data to Google Spreadsheets and collaborate with users in their contact lists. The Gmail Contextual Gadget allows to you receive alerts upon sheet updates, and automatically make changes from within your e-mail.
  • GQueues (slideshow) – a task management app that lets you share lists, assign tasks, get reminders and stay organized. Integrates with Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, Google Talk, and provides great gadgets that can be used in Calendar, Gmail or iGoogle. They also have an offline-capable HTML5 mobile app, which the founder has blogged about recently on the Google Code Blog.

We hope that the deep and valuable integrations in these applications inspire you to develop additional integrations with Google Apps in your own applications.

Google Apps at I/O 2011: A Lots of Excitement

It’s been only two short weeks since Google I/O 2011! There was fantastic energy at the event, and developers had their choice of over 100+ sessions on topics ranging from Google Apps to Android to App Engine to HTML5 to Cloud Robotics.


Here are the highlights from the Google Apps track:

Sessions

In the Google Apps track, we had 8 sessions on a variety of topics of interest to Google Apps Marketplace developers, systems integrators and customers alike. All of the sessions are available in HD on YouTube and we’ve also posted many of the session slides and notes.

Google Apps Marketplace:

  • Launch and Grow your Business App on the Google Apps Marketplace provided an intro to the Apps Marketplace, but most of the session was third-party developers telling the story of their businesses, demoing their integrations and providing guidance for other developers looking for success on the Marketplace. Teaser: 30% free->paid conversion rates from GQueues on the Google Apps Marketplace.
  • Apps Marketplace: Best Practices and Integrations covered a wealth of best practices for business app development and Google Apps integrations based on experience working with hundreds of developers building applications for the Google Apps Marketplace.

Google Apps Script:

  • Enterprise Workflow with Apps Script showed how Google Apps Script can be used to build complex workflows using simple server-side JavaScript code. The speakers built on several examples for document publishing approval, showing lots of code for how it’s done.
  • Developing Apps, Add-Ins and More stepped through building Add-Ins with deep integration into the Google Apps UI and full applications. The team announced the Apps Script GUI Builder to drag and drop UI components and full Apps Script APIs for Gmail and Google Docs.

Application APIs:

Solutions and Administration:

  • Developing Innovative Custom Business Solutions with Google Apps covered how web solution providers are driving us towards the goal of 100% web. Included many real-world examples from a variety of companies who are extending Google Apps using Apps Script, Google Sites, gadgets, Data APIs, App Engine, GWT and more.
  • Compliance and Security in the Cloud talked about the suite of APIs and tools available for Google Apps customers to handle policy compliance, audit, incident response and more. Very helpful session for IT administrators, CTOs and CIOs using Google Apps, with much of the session diving into several examples using real-world use cases.

Developer Sandbox

We had 24 fantastic companies in our Developer Sandbox this year, showcasing the applications they built for the Google Apps Marketplace and the services they provide Google Apps customers as system integrators or VARs. We were excited to see many of the companies talking about new integrations they have recently built with Google Apps.

Parties and Fun

The official After Hours event celebrated technical and artistic innovation and included robots, games and transforming vehicles in addition to a live performance from Jane’s Addiction. Many Google teams and companies attending I/O also threw plenty of great parties at nearby bars and restaurants.