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

Marketplace Recommendations

We’re working on a set of Marketplace app recommendation features designed to make it easier for buyers to discover apps that closely matches their needs. We plan to share app recommendations in a number of locations within the Google Apps product and the Marketplace, beginning with the Google Apps admin control panel and the Featured and Notable sections of the Marketplace front page.

The app recommendations will be powered by a recommendation engine that will use a variety of criteria to formulate its suggestions. App-side metrics (like installation and conversion rates), buyer-side metrics and other factors are being considered for the recommendation algorithm. Once we launch the app recommendations in the coming months, we will be fine-tuning this criteria over time based on the data that we gather to make sure we deliver the best experience to marketplace buyers.

Feedback or questions? Please discuss with us over on Buzz -- we’d like to hear from you!

Looking for Developers to Highlight to Press

Every week we have opportunities when we talk to the press to highlight fresh and innovative web apps. Although Marketplace apps can be built using any tools you want and hosted on any platform, we sometimes have additional PR opportunities for those built using tools like Google Web Toolkit or hosted on App Engine.

If you're a developer interested in the possibility of getting some publicity for your application (app must be currently available) and working with us on this, please shoot an email to apps-customer-stories@google.com with contact information so we can follow-up with you to discuss further.

Gmail Contextual Gadgets: giving the gift of time

We've talked with a lot of Marketplace vendors who weren't aware of the Gmail Contextual Gadgets launch back in May at Google I/O. Gmail Contextual Gadgets is one of our favorite APIs that's launched in recent time, so we wanted to make sure you're all aware of it.  It's a great way to save time for your users.

Contextual Gadgets greatly accelerate user adoption by bringing the application directly to the user in context and in their normal work flow. Many great apps fail to gain user traction because they are separated from the normal workflow. Gmail Contextual Gadgets solve that problem for developers, and make it much easier for the end users to see the benefits.

Here's an example gadget from Harvest-- allowing the users of their time tracking application to fill out their time sheets directly from within Gmail:

We just posted more info on both our developer-facing and customer-facing blogs. Check it out:
Google Apps Developer Blog

Google Enterprise Blog

Going Deeper - More Integration Examples Available in our Developer Docs

Users love Single Sign-On, but we’ve found the depth and quality of a Marketplace app's integration with Google Apps is a key factor in both the user experience and vendor success in the Marketplace. Deep integration makes users happy, because it helps them avoid entering duplicate data and makes useful information accessible from their day-to-day communication and collaboration tools.

To help you discover ways to integrate your own applications with Google Apps, we added a new section to our developer docs showcasing examples from popular applications in the marketplace. Some examples, like BatchBook’s streamlined sign-up process for users, show simple ways applications can help users get started quicker.


Apps can help users be more productive by displaying information and allowing them to take action right within an e-mail message. Harvest, a time tracking application, allows users to complete their timesheets in gmail when they receive their weekly reminders.

You’ll also find examples for collaboration and document sharing, such as Manymoon’s seamless integration with Google Docs. This makes it easy for users to share information with teams or attach relevant docs to tasks.

You can read more about these and other integrations, or try out the apps yourself by going to the Google Apps Marketplace. Of course these are just a few of many ways to make apps easier for users, and we look forward to seeing even more creative ideas from developers.

If you want to learn about the APIs which enable these deep integrations, meet with fellow developers and ask questions of Googlers, come to our Google Apps and Apps Marketplace Hackathon at the Google Mountain View campus on August 24th!

Steven Bazyl, Google Apps Marketplace Team

Google Apps and Apps Marketplace Hackathon

What: Google will be holding a hackathon to help you get started integrating with Google Apps and the Google Apps Marketplace! We will be doing short introductions and presentations throughout the day on many of the Apps APIs. There will be plenty of time to try out APIs, ask questions, and get hands-on help from members of the Google team and other local developers. Bring your laptops and come hang out at Google. Food will be provided.

Who: Software developers looking to learn about integrating with Google Apps. Whether you’re a customer integrating with your existing systems, a VAR/SI helping customers integrate or a SaaS software vendor looking to reach the 2 million businesses using Google Apps by selling your integrated app on the Google Apps Marketplace, this event is for you! Of course, if you’re a developer and have already integrated with Google Apps and are just looking to learn more about the latest APIs or meet the Google team and fellow developers, you’re welcome as well!

When: Tuesday, August 24th from 10AM to 5PM.

Where: Google Campus: 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043. Room to be announced to confirmed attendees.

Sign up here!

If you’re primarily interested in Google Apps Script, we’re having a separate hackathon on September 23rd just for Apps Script. Please see this site for more information.

Important: opportunity to test new account infrastructure

Back in May, we announced that more Google applications are coming for Google Apps customers. This is being made possible by a significant overhaul to our underlying systems. While we expect this to have have no direct impact on how your Marketplace applications work, we did want to explicitly invite you to test these changes to ensure your application still works flawlessly.

More information:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/05/more-google-applications-coming-for.html


Testing signup form:
https://spreadsheets1.google.com/a/google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dGdfTTA2eGhFT0c0SDVLXzMzMFNwUUE6MA#gid=0

One UX item to note: 
Currently most Google Apps customers can only login via OpenID using the Google Apps OpenID endpoint. Unless they have a 'normal' Google account with the same e-mail address, they're unable to login to the 'consumer' OpenID endpoint. This will change for these next generation Google Apps accounts --- they'll be able to login both to the 'consumer' endpoint and the Google Apps endpoint. However, their OpenID identifier URIs will be different depending on which endpoint they use to login. You'll want to make sure to still guide all Google Apps customers to login via the Google Apps endpoint and you'll continue to get the same OpenID identifier for those users, which you'll notice is on their own domain (eg appscustomer.com) as opposed to Google's domain (google.com).

Questions?:
Please let us know if you have questions or problems related to this change by posting in the most relevant Google Apps developer discussion forum.

Important: Change in Provisioning API

Yesterday there was a change in the provisioning API that may be causing errors for some applications. The provisioning API is considered "userless" and does not use the xoauth_requestor_id parameter when access with 2-legged OAuth.

Previously, the API ignored this parameter if set. The API no longer accepts requests with xoauth_requestor_id and now return a 401 error with the error message "Token invalid - AuthSub token has wrong scope." If you're application is seeing these errors, removing the xoauth_requestor_id parameter will correct the problem.

We apologize for the inconvenience this change has caused. The "userless" nature of the Provisioning API 2-legged oauth was only lightly documented in the Best Practices guide, and we've filed a bug to document it more thoroughly.

Don’t forget the button!

Since launching the Google Apps Marketplace last March, one of the stronger trends we’ve seen among high-performing Marketplace apps is use of the “Add to Google Apps” button. The “Add to Google Apps” button is the highest-converting source of traffic to the Marketplace, and the vendors using it are seeing the benefit.

We’ve put together a simple guide explaining how to correctly implement the button and add tracking code, including examples of how some of our vendors are using the button. If you have a landing page about your integrated app, we highly encourage you to use the “Add to Google Apps” button.

Posted by Chris Kelly, Google Apps Marketplace Marketing