Important Changes to Google Apps Marketplace Billing Policies

When we launched the Google Apps Marketplace in March last year, one of our goals was to make it easy for developers to build, integrate, and sell their apps to Google Apps users. Since then, each vendor in the Google Apps Marketplace has handled their own billing and keeps the revenue they generate. Today, we are making that the official Marketplace policy moving forward: Google will not require vendors to adopt a Google billing API or share any portion of their revenue with us. This will keep more revenue in developers’ pockets, and brings the Google Apps Marketplace policy in line with the Chrome Web Store.

So it’s business as usual -- developers can continue to “bring their own billing” to the Marketplace. Developers retain full control over application pricing and billing, and continue to keep all revenue from Google Apps Marketplace customers.
If you’re in need of a billing solution, we encourage you to try Google Checkout and In-App Payments. Or use one of the many other commercial billing and subscription services available online.

Please join us at our next Google Apps Developer Office Hours on Google+ Hangouts on December 19th at 12 PM PST time to discuss the Google Apps Marketplace and any questions you may have about these changes.

Google Apps Developer Hackathon on Tuesday in Mountain View

If you're near Mountain View, California, please join us for a Google Apps Developer Hackathon on Tuesday from 1pm-8pm. The event will bring together developers from the Marketplace ISV, SI and Google Apps customer communities along with Google engineers for a day of hacking.

You are welcome to attend if you're interested in building a new application using Google Apps APIs or would like to connect users with their data by integrating Google Apps with an existing app. We will be handing out prizes for the best projects, so you should be prepared to write code! (rules to be sent to registrants before the event)

We still have a few spots left, so register now or see our earlier post on the Google Apps Developer Blog for more info. See you Tuesday!

Improved Analytics & New Staff Picks Section

Like any Google service, we’re always working to refine the Google Apps Marketplace for our vendors and their customers. Normally we make small, incremental improvements and let the better experience speak for itself, but this week we think several of the new features are noteworthy enough to point out.

View Enhanced Analytics

A frequently requested feature has been improved analytics. If you have Google Analytics configured for your listing, your analytics profile will now receive the search terms and category selected by your customers.

When a customer searches on the Marketplace, the search results will all have two parameters attached: query and category. You’ll want to add these terms to your Google Analytics Website Profile. The query term will include all of the search terms the user entered into the search box, or it could be blank if the customer found your application through browsing. Similarly, the category parameter will be blank unless the customer narrowed his search or browse by picking the category you chose in your application listing, e.g. Accounting & Finance. Now you’ll have much better data about how a customer has reached your application, whether through browsing, searching, or a combination.

Count Installs

Another developer-focused enhancement we’ve made is adding a count of installs and uninstalls on each application’s listing when signed into the vendor account:

"Net install count" represents the number of current installs -- any uninstalls have already been deducted. If you add "Net install count" to "Uninstall count" you will have the total number of installations for the app since it launched. You are also able to retrieve this information from the Licensing API, but it is nice to have it easily accessible on your listing pages.

Sweep Away Those Dusty Apps

On the Vendor Profile page you’ll also that we’ve added the ability to hide unused applications (and show them again) so that you can manage your applications better and remove clutter on your dashboard. You still cannot delete applications, but you can sweep them under the rug! Note that Hiding and Unhiding are just for managing your list as a Vendor -- they do not change your Publish/Unpublish settings for each app. You can hide a published app as easily as an unpublished app.

Browse Staff Picks on the home page

Since announcing the Staff Picks program in May, we’ve featured a number of especially well-integrated and innovative applications on the @GoogleAtWork twitter stream and on the Google Apps Developer Blog. Now we also feature Staff Picks on the front page of the Marketplace.

You can find four Staff Picks on the Marketplace landing page, chosen from the pool of apps selected as staff picks. See the Staff Picks page on code.google.com for more information on how we choose these apps.

Posted by Andy "Rufus" Rothfusz, Google Apps Marketplace team

Requiring SSL for Documents List, Spreadsheets and Sites APIs

In March, we announced that we would start requiring clients to use SSL when making requests to the Google Documents List API, the Google Spreadsheets API, and the Google Sites API. This is part of our ongoing effort to increase the security of user data.

The time has come, and we are starting to roll out this requirement. On average, about 86% of requests to these APIs are already using SSL, so we expect there to be minimal migration required. The implementation will continue throughout September. If an application receives an HTTP 400 Bad Request response to a request, then it may be because the request was not made using HTTPS.

Clients that have not already started using SSL for all requests should do so immediately. This is as simple as upgrading to the latest version of the relevant API client library. Developers with questions should post in the API forums.

Posted by Ali Afshar, Google Apps team

Marketplace Developer Survey

The Google Apps Marketplace team would like to get feedback from the developer community on your experience with the Marketplace and what you think can be done to improve it.

Please fill out the survey below if you have an installable app on the Marketplace (using the Add it Now blue button), are actively building an installable app or previously had an installable app on the Marketplace.

Most questions are optional, so please provide the feedback most important to you even if you don't have time to complete the whole survey.

We'd also like to offer the opportunity to speak 1:1 with the Google team about your Marketplace app. If you're interested, please provide a proposed agenda at the end of the survey.

-Ryan, Scott, Steve and the entire Apps Marketplace team





If you do not see the survey embedded above, please visit the form directly.

TRUSTe Data Privacy Certification Now Available for Marketplace Apps

This is cross-posted from the Google Apps Developer Blog. You can stop reading now if you are following that blog.

When evaluating web apps, customers often ask for information about the vendor’s privacy policy and how their data is handled. To make it easier for customers to discover and understand this information, we’ve teamed up with TRUSTe to offer TRUSTed Apps Data Privacy Certification for Marketplace Apps. This new program is designed specifically to help vendors of installable apps better communicate their data privacy and handling practices to potential customers.

Certified apps will have the TRUSTe logo displayed on their listing page, as well as in search and category results pages, similar to the screenshot below.


When a customers wants to see more details, they click on the TRUSTe logo to view a customized privacy policy report, hosted on TRUSTe.com:



All installable Marketplace apps are eligible to apply for free certification for the first year, and can choose to renew at $300 per year per app thereafter.

To learn more about the program, please see TRUSTe’s certification FAQ and program FAQ. We encourage all installable app vendors to apply today!

Posted by Steven Bazyl, Google Apps Marketplace Team

Want to weigh in on this topic? Discuss on Buzz

Introducing the Apps Ecosystem Marketing Test Kitchen

The Google Apps Marketplace team is always looking for ways to help its vendors add new users and improve installation metrics. In order to help achieve these goals, we have launched the Apps Ecosystem Marketing Kitchen. Through experimentation, we want to collectively identify, test, and share best marketing practices for business web app.

The first initiative we cooked up is designed to help you, as a vendor, minimize the abandonment rate of Marketplace prospects as they bounce around your Marketplace property and various product pages without clear a “call to action”.

The Challenge:
The vendors who drive the most traffic and installs to their Marketplace listing page through their “Add to Apps” button between Nov 9th - 16th will be included in the front page Featured and Notable sections on the Apps Marketplace site.

To find out about this challenge and future ones, check out the Google Apps Developer Blog. Additionally, stay in touch with us on Buzz and Twitter. Send your questions and suggestions to marketing-test-kitchen@google.com.

Harrison Shih, Associate Product Marketing Manager, Google Apps Marketplace