Google launches bolt-ons for web apps

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 10 Mar 2010 at 07:36

Google has launched a marketplace that allows third-party companies to sell add-ons for the search giant's web apps.

The Google Apps Marketplace will sell a variety of business applications - including payroll, project management and CRM apps - that integrate with Google's long-established portfolio of cloud-based apps.

The apps are installed through Google's servers and can gain access to company email, calendars and other data stored on Google's cloud. The add-ons use the same login as Google's native apps, meaning users don't need to remember multiple username/password combinations for the different plugins.

Users are often forced to create and remember multiple passwords, cut and paste data between applications, and jump between multiple interfaces just to complete a simple task

Google claims such integration eradicates one of the biggest hassles of online apps. "Too often, customers who adopt applications from multiple vendors end up with a fractured experience, where each particular application exists in its own silo," claims Marketplace product manager Chris Vander Mey on the Google blog.

"Users are often forced to create and remember multiple passwords, cut and paste data between applications, and jump between multiple interfaces just to complete a simple task."

Only Google Apps administrators have the power to install the plugins, meaning users will have to sweet talk their IT department if they wish to gain access to any of the Google Apps Marketplace software.

More than 50 companies are offering software via the Marketplace at launch, according to Google. Software is charged for on a per-user or per-month basis.