At tonight's Campfire One, we launched the Google Apps Marketplace, to make it easier for you to create applications that integrate deeply with Google Apps, and give you access to our more than 2 million businesses and 25 million Google Apps users.

App integration is accomplished using existing standards such as OpenID, OAuth and Atom Publishing Protocol. The purchase experience is a simple "Add it now" button that streamlines provisioning and data authorization steps for admins, and it gives end users a link to your app in their Google universal navigation bar for one click access and single sign-on.

So what does it take to offer an integrated app for sale in the Google Apps Marketplace?
1) Have or create a business-related cloud application, on the hosting platform of your choice
2) Integrate your cloud app with Google Apps by:

• Adding a single sign-on (SSO) feature using OpenID (required) - Enable your users to access your app more easily and avoid multiple passwords by becoming an OpenID relying party.

• Offering features that integrate data between your app and Google Apps via Google Data APIs (optional) - Applications, like people, work better when they collaborate. Whether your app needs to schedule events, import or export documents and spreadsheets, sync contacts or publish information to sites, the APIs are ready. 


3) Create a manifest file which will drive your app installation flow and subsequent life cycle (URLs for setup, configuration, support and login, as well as which Google Data APIs the application requires), pay a $100 one-time listing fee, and submit it.

Once your application is approved it is easily discoverable by the millions of Google Apps customers. And in return for a streamlined purchase and install process, and integration features exclusive to installable apps, we ask to share 20% of your revenue from new customers. Our billing service, coming soon, is designed to be flexible enough to accommodate both established developers and brand new startups, and will automatically manage the Marketplace's revenue share fees. It will enable users to buy directly from the Marketplace using their existing Checkout account, and offer a unified bill for all purchases. Until this service is available, you can use your existing billing and payment mechanism for your app. For more details on how revenue sharing will work and when it will become a requirement, see the marketplace billing policy.

More than 50 developers have already integrated their apps with Google Apps and have made them available in the Google Apps Marketplace. We hope you will join them and we can't wait to see what new & innovative applications you will bring to the market. And if you're also a Google Apps customer, check these great apps out.

If you haven't already, watch the Campfire One event on YouTube:



Posted by Steve Bazyl, Google Apps Marketplace Team