Google Apps Marketplace open for business as cloud alternative to Microsoft
Microsoft may well control the desktop, but Google is endeavoring to control the Web with cloud computing options galore. The latest installment of this effort is the Google Apps Marketplace, which brings third-party applications fully on board the Google Apps ship. And it’s now open for business.
Google Apps has grown in both stature and popularity in the five years since they were first offered. With online applications such as Google Mail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar, Google Apps has been adopted by 25 million people. Two million businesses also now use Google Apps, and it is to those that Google is gearing its latest effort.
The Google Apps Marketplace will offer those businesses the chance to purchase and install third-party applications designed to integrate with existing Google applications. It also offers developers the chance to sell their applications via the marketplace, with Google only taking 20 percent of the asking price.
More than 50 companies are already selling their apps through the marketplace. These are being offered in a number of different categories, from ‘Accounting and Finance’ to ‘Training and Change Management’. In announcing the Apps Marketplace, Google also embedded a video tutorial showing how businesses can get started.
The Google Apps marketplace looks to be very well designed, with ease of use being an obvious commitment. It’s well-stocked, nicely organized, and the reviews section for each app is already populated with informative testimonials.
This is just the latest example of the battle to control cloud computing, the emerging market which is likely to compete with or potentially even supersede desktop computing over the next decade or so. Microsoft pretty much has the desktop environment sewn up, with its Windows operating system and Office suites leading the way.
However, Google is definitely in a position to challenge Microsoft for majority control of the cloud. Its Google Apps are gaining ground every day, with the marketplace only likely to increase that momentum. Google’s Web browser, Chrome, is also on the rise, and Google Chrome OS is on its way. And that could truly shake (and shape) the tech world when it arrives.
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