Innovation

Review: Google Apps Marketplace well stocked, highlights ecosystem

Whenever an app marketplace launches---especially one focused on business---the primary issue is selection. Does the store offer enough apps, reviews, service providers and refinement tools to make a solid business decision?

Written by Larry Dignan, Contributor March 9, 2010 at 10:48 p.m. PT

Google Apps Marketplace delivers on most of those questions. Overall, the Google Apps Marketplace is well stocked and highlights a budding ecosystem. It has a bevy of business friendly categories ranging from accounting and finance to document management to sales and marketing to security. Google also has a decent roster of service providers that can be sorted by focus and company size. In addition, Google's enterprise search products ride shotgun.

More: Gallery: A tour of Google Apps Marketplace

Add it up and Google has delivered a business app outlet that has a solid roster of reviews and a strong ecosystem on display. Google noted on its blog that it had big partners like NetSuite, Intuit and SuccessFactors, which is launching a performance management app for emerging companies. Judging from the initial debut, it's likely that Google's App Marketplace will only improve. Today, Google's App Marketplace doesn't have the heft of Salesforce.com's AppExchange, which boasts 849 apps, but it could get there as it attracts other partners. NetSuite said it will launch its enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite on Google's marketplace.

The main focus of this review is selection. There are a few areas that are light. For instance, the workflow category only had two applications, but each one had a bevy of reviews. There's an installable product category that yields nothing.

But overall, the Google Apps Marketplace is off to a solid start compared to similar efforts. For instance, the government's Apps.gov store is impressive on the surface, but when you dig deeper you find a relatively weak selection.

Google has hit the ground running with its App Marketplace.

A few images from my tour:

The CRM selection...