Erictric

Google Releases Google Apps Marketplace

Just as we had reported before, Google launched a new online app store for Google Apps called Google Apps Marketplace today at the Google Campfire One event in Mountain View, California. The new Apps Marketplace aims to provide the more than 25 million people and the more than 2 million businesses using Google Apps with a large range of different third-party applications in the cloud.

Just like popular mobile app stores like the Android Market, BlackBerry App World, and Apple App Store to name a few, Google Apps Marketplace will allow developers to sell their applications. Google will only keep 20% of the revenue, while the remaining 80% will go to developers. That’s a much better deal than the 30/70 ratio that Google offers to Android developers.

All applications in the Google Apps Marketplace will integrate with Google Apps Premier, Standard, and Education Editions using open protocols. Currently Google is working with more than 50 partners that include Intuit, Aviary, Box, Atlassian, Zoho, and many more. More »

Google Introduces New Google Apps Developer Blog

Google introduced today its new official Google Apps Developer Blog. Now, why is this important? Well, there was a rumor last week suggesting that Google was planning to launch an official online app store for its Google Apps services such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs, et cetera.

Google was quickly to point out that they already have an online app store called Google Solutions Marketplace, and that they had nothing to announced at the moment. Although many believe that an app store could be much more different that the Solutions Marketplace, which is more of a directory. More »

Google Sends Out IE6 Death Notices

True it is that just a few days ago, Google posted a notice on their Official Google Enterprise Blog that the company would officially stop supporting the Internet Explorer 6 browser this year.

Now, Google Apps administrators are receiving email messages noting the discontinuation of IE6 support for Google Apps of the course of this year, along with various other “old” browsers.

See the message in its entirety after the break. More »

Google Planning to Launch Online Store for Google Apps

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google will launch a new app store of its own to showcase applications developed specifically for its already popular suite of web-based productivity programs known as Google Apps. Such store is set to be announced in March of this year.

The WSJ states that “people briefed by the company” said the store will allow users to purchase all kinds of add-ons and plugins for Google Apps. Google is planning to divide the profits between its partners and itself. This move could either help or hurt Google, given that many users won’t put as much trust on third-party software as they put on Google. More »

Google Voice to Join Google Apps for Businesses

Even though Google Voice, formerly known as GrandCentral, is still in beta stage, it might soon be joining Google’s roster of applications and products aimed toward businesses. Currently, Gmail, Calendar, Google Docs, Google Video, and more are already part of Google Apps for big and small businesses alike.

According to TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington, Google Voice is expected to publicly launch early in 2010. The enterprise or business-aimed version will soon follow afterward. More »

City of Los Angeles Completes Move to Google Apps

In late October, we wrote about a looming deal between search giant Google and the city of Los Angeles to migrate over 30,000 city employees to the cloud with Google Apps.  Today, Google reports that the move is complete, or almost complete, anyway.

“Today we’d like to officially welcome another customer to the mix: the City of Los Angeles. Starting today, Los Angeles will be equipping 34,000 city employees with Google Apps for email and collaboration in the cloud,” wrote Matt Glotzback, Project Management Director for Google Enterprise, in a blog post this morning.

We’re going to leave out the inherent risks of moving toward cloud-based applications, and congratulate the city of Los Angeles on the move. We’re seeing more and more government entities moving to Google Apps, along with many businesses (including us).

Video after the article break. More »

Users Reporting Google Apps Calendars Down

Despite the fact that Google’s App Status Dashboard does not indicate any issues with Google Calendar, TheNextWeb.com (image courtesy) is reporting that many users are unable to access their Google Apps Calendars, and are presented with the error message pictured. From what we know, the service has been down for “some hours.”

Of course, since Google isn’t even acknowledging this yet, we haven’t got any notion as to what is causing this.

Update: According to Google in a Tweet, “The issue that some people were seeing earlier today should be resolved now — thanks for your patience while we worked it out.”

Los Angeles Adopts Google Apps For The 30,000 City Employees

The City Council of Los Angeles, California [as if you didn't know], approved a $7.25 million contract today to move the 30,000 city employees to Google App’s email system. This deal is of course a great thing for Google who has been in a very heated battle against archenemy Microsoft to win more enterprise customers.

The deal was passed after more than 2 hours of debate, where several members expressed security concerns. In the end, the deal was passed 12 – 0. Los Angeles will start a pilot period, in which only a small number of employees will test the system.

The City of Los Angeles becomes one of the largest cities in the United States to adopt Google Apps.

[ Los Angeles Times ]

Google Taking “Gone Google” Ad Campaign Worldwide

In early August, we talked about Google’s “Gone Google” campaign, which would consist of a series of billboards and advertisements around the nation explaining why enterprises everywhere are, well, going Google. This of course, refers to the use of Google Apps — email, sharing documents, event organizing, and so forth.

According to Google, over two million businesses (including Erictric) have turned to Google Apps to improve efficiency, and put simply: get things done.

Apparently Google has found that the US advertisements for Google Apps have worked in their favor, because last night, the California-based company announced that they intend to expand the “Gone Google” advertisements across the world to 6 nations. Locations include the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Japan, Australia, and Singapore (source). The following is a video Google has put together for the expanding “Gone Google” campaign: More »