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Google Launches Apps Marketplace, Apps Store for Cloud Apps

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Google has just rolled out a new online service, making it officially known that the company is serious about cloud computing and business applications. The new service – Google Apps Marketplace provides products and services including installable apps that integrate with Google Apps. These installable apps features single sign-on capability and Google’s universal navigation.  Some of these apps even integrate with domain data.

If you an enterprise network administrator utilizing Google’s many cloud server application or Google apps, the marketplace is a useful destination for finding new apps from both Google and third-party application developers. The marketplace shall serve as a one-stop-shop for all your enterprise apps need.

Currently, Google is in a deal with around 50 companies offering online business apps. And right after Google announced the Google Apps Marketplace, those companies started announcing their own applications which debut at the marketplace.

Of course, the number of companies joining this avenue is bound to grow leaps and bound. Give it a couple of days and I’m pretty sure third-party online apps developers will start jumping into the deep pit of Google’s marketing strategy.

In case you’re interested to know, some of the great apps which debut at the Google Marketplace include the following:

BatchBook Social CRM– BatchBook is a lightweight but powerful CRM that allows you to easily organize contacts, monitor social networks and track leads and deals.

Aviary Design Suite – Design tools and templates to create, modify and share images, logos, presentations, audio tracks, podcasts & more. Teams can collaborate on multimedia projects. Works directly in Google Docs!

myERP.com : Manage your business in the cloud – Free online business suite. Streamline your CRM, Sales, Projects, Purchasing, Inventory, A

EchoSign Electronic Signature for Google Apps – EchoSign.com, the web’s leading eSignature service, natively integrates with your Google Apps account, including Google docs, spreadsheets, etc. for instant on-line review, approval, and eSignatures.

Google Apps Marketplace seems to be a solid applications shop. Nothing fancy on the UI aspect. Just your usual plain Google theme.

LA Equips City Employees with Google Apps

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Google just got a huge userbase with the city of Los Angeles equipping its employees with Google Apps which they can use for email  and collaboration in the cloud.  Starting today, more than 34,000 city employees will have access to various Google tools and services provided by Google Apps’ suite of collaborative technologies.

The decision to adapt Google Apps was made by the city’s CTO Randi Levin and her team at the city’s Information Technology Agency. The group evaluated 14 proposals but found Google Apps to be the most practical and most suited for the employees needs.

True enough, Google Apps cloud computing service may actually improve the city’s email system secutiry and reliability – something all govenment agencies should pay close attention to.

Employees will also have access to collaboration technology including facility to share docs, sites and videos which employees can edit simulataneously in the cloud.  The City is hoping that the use of Google Apps will help the employees run the City smoothly and efficiently.

But the bottomline of course is the fact that aside from  implementing a robust information technology strategy, it actually lessens the cost the City will be spending on its IT infrastructure. And consistent uptime is almost assured being hosted in Google’s cloud.