Google Hangs Out a Shingle for Its Apps Marketplace
Google does what Google does and it has now opened the doors on an apps marketplace that is designed for Google Apps customers. Don’t think the overlap in terminology with the other app guys is coincidence either. The difference with this form of app though is the fundamental difference that separates Google from Apple. Google provides apps that are fundamental business needs and this strategy is where the search giant appears to be hanging its hat moving forward relating to search, advertising and more.
Yesterday the Official Google blog reported:
Every day, thousands of businesses choose the cloud. More than 2 million businesses have adopted Google Apps over the last three years, eliminating the hassles associated with purchasing, installing and maintaining hardware and software themselves.
We’ve found that when businesses begin to experience the benefits of cloud computing, they want more. We’re often asked when we’ll offer a wider variety of business applications — from accounting and project management to travel planning and human resources management. But we certainly can’t and won’t do it all, and there are hundreds of business applications for which we have no particular expertise.
First of all, having 2 million businesses using Google Apps is pretty impressive. While most are the SMB’s of the world, Google has shown the world the ability to penetrate enterprise accounts as well. Of course, this hits at another of the biggest competitors against the Goog: Microsoft.
Some apps that are part of the roll out are Intuit Online payroll, Manymoon project management, PS Connect and JIRA Studio for development to manage flow between various apps.
Watching this strategy unfold is pretty interesting. There is an awful lot riding on it and it would appear that Google has more of the pieces under their roof than any other competitor does. How this plays out should be fascinating. One of the final paragraphs of the post tells the real story:
For more information on the benefits of the Google Apps Marketplace to businesses, check out our Enterprise Blog post. Developers interested in learning how to integrate with Google Apps can check out our post on the Google Code Blog. Or, you can explore the Google Apps Marketplace directly at http://google.com/appsmarketplace.
Notice the order of how these are written. What it seems to be saying is that Google wants the enterprise and is daring everyone else to find a way to stop them.
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Google Apps Marketplace Opens For B2Business
Taking a page from Salesforce.com, last night Google formally launched the anticipated Google Apps Marketplace at its “Campfire One” developer event. In short it allows companies and developers to gain access and sell into Google’s “2 million businesses and 25 million Google Apps users.” The marketplace launches with 50 partners including Intuit and competitor Zoho.
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Apple Takes HTC to Court, At Least That’s What the Documents Say
The battle between Google and Apple is heating up and how it shakes out is likely to influence how a lot of online business is done both now and in the future. You know things are serious when one of the partners, in this case Google’s partner HTC, gets hauled into court by Apple for alleged patent infringement and Google, who is not even named in the suit, comes to support HTC.
TechCrunch provides some intel
As you’ve undoubtedly heard by now, Apple has filed a lawsuit against device-maker HTC over 20 patents they control. As you might imagine, Google has something to say about it too.
“We are not a party to this lawsuit. However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it,” a Google spokesperson emailed us.
A little odd that Google would proactively send us a statement for something they’re not technically involved in. But, as we’re all well aware, this suit is much more about Google’s Android operating system than HTC. And it seems that Google is well aware of that too.
The territorial lines being drawn and the results in the marketplace are going to be significant because these battles are only going to intensify. As they get worse they will affect how these companies run and eventually how regular people can do business through them. As a result, these things, which seem like a “That’s their problem” scenario are really everyone’s potential problem.
What do you think about the Google v. Apple stance that is being more and more solidified on a daily basis? How will it impact your ability to do business? Will it even matter? Are you taking sides?
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Report: It’s A Good Time To Be A Web Analyst, Not Quite So A Google Analytics Competitor
Econsultancy just released its annual Web Analytics Buyers Guide, and in conjunction with its Online Measurement and Strategy Report forms an in-depth analysis of the marketplace over here in the UK. On the whole it makes for very interesting (and heart-warming) reading.
That is, unless you are a paid-for web analytics provider residing at the [...]
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Ask.com Introduces ‘Search for the Cure’
What’s a great way for a search engine that struggles to be mentioned with the top search providers in the marketplace to get some traffic? Do something for someone else. That’s exactly what Ask.com is doing with its ‘Search or the Cure’ campaign which is designed to raise one million dollars to Susan G. Komen for the Cure group who raises money for breast cancer research.
From the pure humanity side this is a pretty cool idea. It allows people to simply take an action to contribute rather than asking them for money. Of course, there are opportunities to donate but it’s a fundraising organization after all and the cause is something that everyone can get behind. In this case, asking for a donation seems very appropriate.
The contribution begins with the Ask.com audience. In order to contribute, simply complete tasks such as adding the Komen theme to your Ask.com homepage and then answer breast cancer-related questions during the month of October. You can, of course, use Ask.com to search for the right answer. Ask.com will donate 50 cents for every person that adds the skin and answers the questions correctly.
In all honesty, I am not a big donation person mainly because everyone is looking for money and it just seems easier to say no to everyone rather than do something that may actually be the right thing to do. I tried out this process, though, and it was so easy that I can see the brilliance in it for the Komen organization and Ask.com itself. Here’s some more about how the organization benefits
“One of our greatest opportunities in the fight to end breast cancer lies with the many people who tell us they want to support Susan G. Komen for the Cure but don’t have the time or money to contribute,” said Hala Moddelmog, chief executive officer of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. “Ask.com has created an easy, engaging, and cost-free way for consumers to get involved and generate funding that is crucial to breast cancer research and education. We are thrilled that Ask.com has joined our cause with such an innovative program. We’re urging everyone to Search for the Cure by switching to Ask.com.”
Now for the business side. This is a natural win/win for Ask.com. Will it be something that takes it from number ‘lower than third’ in the search engine race? Not likely. I will say, though, that I have already taken an action, felt like I contributed and am motivated to at least visit and answer questions as often as I remember to do so.
Will this mean I have ‘switched’ to Ask.com for my search needs? Once again, not likely, but I will be at Ask.com more than if this wasn’t in place. As a result I may use it more and, in all honesty, give it a real try. I suspect most people who even know about the engine haven’t even explored it deep enough to make a good decision on its merits and demerits.
So kudos to Ask.com for coming up with a creative way to drive traffic to their search engine. People will rally around a cause and they will put aside habits to help people especially if it is easy and doesn’t make them pull out their wallet. Many will bemoan the fact that people may only be attracted to this because it is free. I would argue that this kind of program is brilliant in that it can get a person like me to take an action that will produce a donation of some sort and help someone that I was not considering when I woke up this morning. Oh and another thing I wasn’t considering doing today was going to Ask.com but now I did.
Google on Short End of Current AOL Valuation
Just four years ago Google made a big splash in the Internet space by buying a 5% stake in AOL for $1 billion. Do the math and that placed the valuation of the company at around $20 billion. The fall of AOL from an Internet powerhouse to a “will they ever be influential again?” story is one that Google now knows all to well. Bloomberg reports today that on July 8th Time Warner bought that 5% share back from Google for $273 million. The valuation of AOL is now placed at $5.66 billion. What a difference a few years makes, huh?
Google wrote off $726 million of that investment last year so the pain of the misstep is mostly in the past. It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t sting, however.
So how are things looking for AOL these days? With new CEO Tim Armstrong at the helm there seems to be some buzz about the potential but outside of the AOL PR storm it remains to be seen if there are any believers. An AOL spokesman went into no comment mode when asked about the valuation.
AOL has its work cut out for them and it appears that the worst is still not behind them.
Armstrong told employees last week that job cuts are possible as he undertakes a 60-day review of the Internet company’s cost structure.
Now that Armstrong has set the table, it’s highly unlikely that the ax won’t fall at AOL in the next 60 days. What’s it like at the company these days? Let us know if you are there to sweat out the ‘possible job cuts’. As for the rest of us what is the expectation of AOL moving forward? Will they ever have the position in the marketplace they once held? Will they ever really matter again?
Using Predictive Modeling In Seasonal Search Campaigns
Optimal bidding for performance is a complex task for search marketers. When placing bids every day, you must be mindful of the volatility in the marketplace due to changing search traffic, competition, matching algorithms that vary across search engines and the changing needs of your business. For many of you, particularly if you work in [...]
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OpenX Raises Another $10M to Help in Its Efforts to Bring Down Google
It seems that OpenX CEO Tim Cadogan is doing something that he struggled to do at Yahoo–compete with Google.
The ad technology provider and marketplace has just announced a third round of venture capital with $10.4 million being added to the war chest, courtesy of DAG Ventures.
The company is certainly doing well to fend off Google’s own Ad Manager product–claiming an impressive 300 billion ads monthly on more than 150,000 websites across the web. The money will help OpenX further expand both the downloadable and hosted versions of its ad server, while continuing to grow its recently launched OpenX Market.
So, how is this small start-up able to stand head-to-head with the search giant? Simple. OpenX isn’t trying to fight Google on its strengths.
The threat of Google’s entry into the sector has prompted OpenX to tout its independence, neutrality and openness as distinguishing features, although Cadogan stressed that its ad server product is also more customizable than Google’s. “We couldn’t outspend them, so we’re trying to create a different value proposition,” he said.
Sounds like a good plan. In fact, with more and more start-ups taking the same approach, it makes you wonder if Google could end up the way of Gulliver. 
