Last night at Campfire One, Google launched the Google Apps Marketplace, where developers can create apps that integrate with Google Apps and sell them to users. According to Google, they can reach over 2 million businesses and 25 million users.

Right off the bat, the Google Apps Marketplace launched with over 50 applications from companies like Intuit and Atlassian, with more coming soon from companies like NetSuite and SuccessFactors, a Google spokesperson tells WebProNews.

"Once installed to a company’s domain, these third-party applications work like native Google applications," explains Google Apps Marketplace Product Manager Chris Vander Mey. "With administrator approval, they may interact with calendar, email, document and/or contact data to increase productivity. Administrators can manage the applications from the familiar Google Apps control panel, and employees can open them from within Google Apps. With OpenID integration, Google Apps users can access the other applications without signing in separately to each. The Google Apps Marketplace eliminates the worry about software updates, keeping track of different passwords and manual syncing and sharing of data, thereby increasing business productivity and lessening frustrations for users and IT administrators alike. That’s the power of the cloud."

This is the 2nd big move by Google regarding the cloud and Google Apps in less than a week. Late last week, the company acquired DocVerse, which "makes Word, PowerPoint and Excel Work like Google Docs," as the DocVerse title tag explains.

Developers can get more info about the Google Apps Marketplace at Google’s Developer Programs site. The company will also be talking about developing apps for the enterprise at Google I/O in May.

Last night at Campfire One, Google launched the Google Apps Marketplace, where developers can create apps that integrate with Google Apps and sell them to users. According to Google, they can reach over 2 million businesses and 25 million users.

Right off the bat, the Google Apps Marketplace launched with over 50 applications from companies like Intuit and Atlassian, with more coming soon from companies like NetSuite and SuccessFactors, a Google spokesperson tells WebProNews.

"Once installed to a company’s domain, these third-party applications work like native Google applications," explains Google Apps Marketplace Product Manager Chris Vander Mey. "With administrator approval, they may interact with calendar, email, document and/or contact data to increase productivity. Administrators can manage the applications from the familiar Google Apps control panel, and employees can open them from within Google Apps. With OpenID integration, Google Apps users can access the other applications without signing in separately to each. The Google Apps Marketplace eliminates the worry about software updates, keeping track of different passwords and manual syncing and sharing of data, thereby increasing business productivity and lessening frustrations for users and IT administrators alike. That’s the power of the cloud."

This is the 2nd big move by Google regarding the cloud and Google Apps in less than a week. Late last week, the company acquired DocVerse, which "makes Word, PowerPoint and Excel Work like Google Docs," as the DocVerse title tag explains.

Developers can get more info about the Google Apps Marketplace at Google’s Developer Programs site. The company will also be talking about developing apps for the enterprise at Google I/O in May.

In the late 90’s, a spokesperson for the Coca Cola corporation said, “Our primary competition isn’t Pepsi. Our real competition is water, tea, nimbupani and Pepsi… in that order.”

While it’s a gruesome thought to see water considered competition to the top cola manufacturer, I didn’t include the quote to make a commentary on public health or privatization. I did it to remind startups that competition includes all products that solve the same problem, in this case – thirst. When a startup claims they have no competitors, it makes me wonder if there’s a need for their product in the first place. You have competitors. Below are a few ways you can find them, research them and then beat them.

Sponsor

It’s About Solving A Problem: Whether you are connecting friends online, providing a reference resource or building a better mousetrap, your product is one approach to a problem and you need to find others who claim to take on the same challenge. Your obvious competitors are those with similar products but your less obvious ones are those with vastly different products who still compete for market’s attention.

Know Your Competitors: Think about your problem statement and the problem-related keywords and categories that drive users to your site. Now take those same keywords, type them into your favorite search engine and look at who dominates those pages. This is a good indicator of your competition. You can also search your keywords and categories through sites like KillerStartups, YouNoodle and LinkedIn to determine others in your space. Conversation tracking services like Echo and UberVu also allow you to track your perceived direct competitors through public conversations, blog posts and traditional media sources.

Reach Out Early and Make A Better Case: Often when ReadWriteWeb writes an article about a company, we get a pitch about a similar product the next day. Unless you prove that your product solves the problem much better than the last guy, we are not going to write about you. Similarly, investors don’t want to hear a pitch about an exact replica of a product they’ve already funded. It is your job to reach out to stakeholders early, explain the problem, give an accurate description of the competitive environment, and then blow our minds. You need to prove that you are the best solution to the problem bar none.

Photo Credit: Dan Bennett

Discuss

While none of us here at ReadWriteWeb have yet to see it in our Google News, a tip this morning from blogger Joe Hobot tells us that trending topics may be coming to the search engine’s news aggregator.

We got in touch with Google this morning and a spokesman confirmed that the feature is indeed part of a series of experiments the company has been running since early this month.

Image thanks to Joe Hobot.

Sponsor

According to Chris Gaither, a spokesperson for Google, Search Engine Rountable first reported the potential feature’s appearence last Friday. Gaither said that trending topics are one of many experiments Google is conducting in their redesign of the news homepage.

At Google, we run anywhere from 50 to 200 experiments at any given time on our websites all over the world. Right now, we are running a small test of a new Google News homepage design. More information about how Google runs experiments can be found [here].

Google last redesigned its news page last May, adding more visual content to the layout. This time around, we expect to see more in the way of real-time content, including features such as the trending topics seen here.

If you keep a close watch, it is possible you will see other new features that Google is testing, but as the company’s blog post points out, often these features will show up and go completely unnoticed. In Hobot’s case, the trending topics showed up for a brief period before disappearing again.

We asked about the specifics of the new feature, but Gaither said that statement included above is all the company is saying about it at this time.

Discuss

Google users in the UK may be unusually well-informed with regards to their government’s healthcare policies.  The Department of Health revealed this week that it spent about 2.72 million (or $4.25 million at the current exchange rate) on AdWords over the past year.

To be exact: the department spent 2,720,457.11 between February 1 of last year and January 31 of this one, according to official records.  And a whopping 21,939 keywords (including ones like "health information" and "stop smoking") were covered by its campaign.

As reported in a Smart Healthcare article, a Department of Health spokesperson explained this huge endeavor by stating, "The Department of Health’s campaigns are designed to deliver better health, whether they be to help people change their behaviours to protect their long term health, to signpost people to NHS services, or to encourage healthier lifestyles."

The spokesperson then further justified the AdWords campaign by adding, "The campaigns are evaluated using a combination of robust techniques that help us identify exactly what works, so we know that these campaigns are saving lives."

That acts as a nice sort of pat on the back for Google.  The search giant no doubt appreciates the UK government’s money, too.

Related Articles:

> Google Narrows Down Mobile Ad Targeting

> Report Suggests More Revenue, But Fewer Advertisers For Google

> Google Now Rejecting AdWords Ads Without Proper Display

<a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/02/google-apps-adds-enterprise-The Google Enterprise blog has a post tonight about some new features being unveiled that should assuage some of the critics who discount the security of using Google Apps on a mobile device.

The new features permit corporate IT policies to be enforced from the customer’s Google Apps console across different mobile devices with the exception of Android smartphones, which will eventually have similar features.

Sponsor

It seems ironic not to include the Nexus One and other Android devices. But we have our own speculation why the Nexus One and other Android devices are not a part of this feature upgrade. Google has made it clear that the next version of the Nexus One will be an enterprise smartphone. We expect these features and more to be a part of this upcoming Nexus One device.

We sought clarification on the matter this evening but have not yet heard back from a Google spokesperson.

According to the post, Google Apps Premier and Education Edition administrators may manage iPhones, Nokia E series and Windows Mobile devices from the Google Apps administrative control panel.

The service allows administrators to:

• Remotely wipe all data from lost or stolen mobile devices.
• Lock idle devices after a period of inactivity.
• Require a device password on each phone.
• Set minimum lengths for more secure passwords.
• Require passwords to include letters, numbers and punctuation.

These are all security features that are cited as necessary for acceptance in the enterprise.

The new features follow enhancements made last year, including the Google Apps Connector for Blackberry Enterprise Server. On Android devices, Google announced new Web versions of GMail and Google Calendar. Google Docs was also updated.

Last year, the company also released Google Sync for iPhone, Nokia E Series and Windows Mobile devices. enabling Google Apps users to access and sync mail, calendar, and contacts from their mobile device to the Google cloud.

Discuss

Online advertising can, at times, be downright villainous. We’ve all fallen victim to the misleading “X” that opened up more windows instead of closing the one, or lured by ads that seemed to know all our personal information. But today, Facebook released a new set of terms for ad and offer networks that looks to help prevent dishonest advertising.

David Swain, a spokesperson for Facebook, said that the new terms are meant to create more accountability and faster enforcement when things run afoul.

Sponsor

The terms are in addition to the already existing, so-called “Facebook Policies,” to which the ad and offer networks are already held.

What’s New?

In today’s release of “Platform Terms for Advertising Providers”, we see a common theme – accountability and protection for the user. Within the seven new term items, companies are required to keep open lines of communication with Facebook, provide “a clear and conspicuous method for a user to make a complaint” and “provide to Facebook the names, email addresses, and business addresses of all operators and employees of the ad provider.”

Overall, the terms appear to make a number of connections and communication channels and hold ad providers responsible, which is something we certainly won’t complain about. They prevent back-dealing and information swapping, especially for companies that run both ad networks and Facebook applications, and require companies to operate transparently. The terms also look to prevent companies from duping Facebook by using IP filtering to show different content to Facebook employees than other users might see.

Keeping Relationships Above Board

It also looks like Facebook is trying to avoid a repeat of past issues with advertisers, especially an instance in December, when a health insurance lobbying group reportedly paid Facebook users in virtual, “in-game” currency to send a letter opposing health-care reform legislation to their Congressional representative.

The fourth term reads as follows:

If the ad provider owns or operates an application on Facebook Platform, the ad provider may not make customer support contingent upon using such an application or require a user to share information with the application, and will not use any data it receives through operation of the application to tailor content (such as serving advertisements through an ad network).

This term seems to address that sort of situation directly, something we strongly agree with. Using the more addictive qualities of Farmville and the like should not create influence over political outcomes. What we’re saying is, an addict’s desire for virtual corn should not be for sale, especially in ways that force people to act and potentially cause real change in the world.

It is illegal to buy votes and it should be for companies to trade virtual corn for letters to congressman. We hope these terms help ensure that simple idea.

While Zynga was not implicated in the December debacle, we asked how it saw this term affecting its business practices, if at all. Zynga is, after all, the exact type of company described in the clause. We did not receive a response by press time.

On a less sinister note, this also seems to prohibit ads using friends pictures and other data collected from applications. While Swain reminded us that Facebook had already “prohibited user data [from] showing up in third-party ads,” we hope that these new terms keep that a reality.

In the end, the number of ways that Facebook tries to hold companies accountable is substantial and we hope that we never seeing an ad for a date with our mother ever again.

Discuss

Starting this spring, you won’t need to gather the whole family around a 15-inch laptop screen to talk with cousin Joe on the other side of the country. As a matter of fact, you won’t even need to get up off the sofa after the evening news, because Skype is coming to the big screen – the big TV screen, that is.

Skype announced today that they have been working with LG and Panasonic to embed Skype in internet-connected widescreen HDTVs.

Sponsor

Skype claims it is listening to its customers who (gasp!) want to get away from their computers once in a while.

“We know that Skype users are increasingly interested in conducting video calls away from their computers,” said Skype CEO Josh Silverman in a press release. “With Skype, consumers … will now be able to participate in rich, real-time video conversations from the comfort of their couch.”

Up to five million Skype-enabled TVs will be delivered during 2010, but the TV alone will not do it. In addition to a high-speed connection, users will need to purchase an additional, specially designed web cam, which Skype Spokesperson Jennifer Caukin told us would run about $150. Caukin said the web cam is designed to pick up audio from a greater distance, so Skype on TV users will be able to remain seated instead of huddling around the microphone. It will also provide high definition video capabilities.

Skype will be embedded on LG’s NetCast series and Panasonic’s VIERA CAST series of HDTVs.

Discuss

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that BreakingNews.com was opperated by the same people who started the @breakingnews Twitter account.

MSNBC announced this morning that it is buying the BreakingNews.com URL from a company called PV Media Group. This follows November’s purchase of @breakingnews and its 1.4 million followers. The two companies were not connected before MSNBC’s acquisitions of their various projects.

When we profiled @breakingnews founder Michael van Poppel in July, the company was just about to release its iPhone app and had over 800,000 followers on Twitter. That number is now over 1.5 million.

Sponsor

“Not everyone wants news surrounded by commentary or features,” said Charlie Tillinghast, president of the MSNBC Digital Network in the company’s press release about today’s purchase.

MSNBC Spokesperson Gina Stikes told us in an email that “Msnbc has acquired the URL only.” She did not disclose any further details, such as the purchase price.

For more background about BreakingNews.com, see today’s coverage at DomainNameWire.

Discuss

Press releases are a form of online marketing that we don’t discuss very often. They don’t have the new and exciting appeal of social media or even search engine marketing, but they’ve been around a lot longer and are still working. In fact, they can play right into those other forms.

"Search engine rankings are arguably the most important small business marketing tool available today because it drives Web traffic — and potential prospects — to a small business’ Web site," a PRWeb spokesperson tells WebProNews. "However, because improving search rankings is desirable, achieving results can be both challenging and highly competitive."

PRWeb shared a case study with us, involving a firm that typically sees a boost in search engine rankings and a 50% spike in web traffic after they issue a release. In fact, for one release in particular, the firm saw a spike of 400% on two different Web sites, and the firm doesn’t believe they were from the same users. They also incorporate social media tools like Twitter to extend the "shelf life" of press releases, and say that drives additional traffic.

"If you want a release to rank highly in search engines you have to use key words and link those to your Web site," says Peter Figueredo, CEO of NETexponent, the subject of the case study.  "In addition, you need to put them in the release a few of times, for example in the headline, the sub-headline and again in the body. This is different from a traditional news release with a catchy headline where you may not have your key words included." 

"When we included a link to our press releases on Twitter and other social media networks, we saw these both expanded the scope of distribution and the extended the longevity of the announcement," adds Figueredo.  "With other news releases we saw an initial spike in Web site traffic on the first two days and then it dropped off.  With these features we’ve seen increases in traffic up to five days after the news release was issued."

Some have suggested that Twitter could actually replace the press release. I wouldn’t go that far, but it provides a complimentary service for announcing news quickly. The press release just has much broader potential. That hasn’t stopped at least one company from offering a service that provides one line "Twitter-style" press releases.

When we think of press releases, we often think of distribution, which is a huge part of it definitely. But when using a newswire service like PRWeb, BusinessWire, PRNewswire, etc., don’t forget about your own website as well. Earlier this year I discussed how some companies’ own press centers are holding back some marketing opportunities for them.

Your site should have a section for press releases, and that should be up to date with the latest release when it goes out. You’d be surprised at how often these go without being updated even when a press release has been spotted elsewhere. It is also a good idea to link to any company blogs, Twitter accounts, or any other place where company announcements are made.

Another thing I notice is that many company press pages also do not have RSS feeds set up. Some offer different kinds of press alerts, but otherwise, they are relying on people to frequently check back to see what is happening. Google does this well. They announce a lot of their news via their wide range of blogs (which is a great strategy in itself), and while their press release section doesn’t get nearly as many updates, they offer a feed so that users know when it has been updated. They also provide links to other press-related resources where their latest info can be obtained.

The bottom line is that press releases inform interested parties of what is going on with your business. Despite their name, they’re not just about the press anymore. The web has made them available to anyone. Social media is an extension of this, and opens up the opportunity for sharing. Search engine rankings of course bring releases right to searchers. Make your releases good.

Do you get good boosts in traffic from press releases? Tell us about it.

Facebook has just announced some updates to the Open API Stream. Among these are simpler JavaScript methods for publishing, Facebook Pages support, and attribution. A spokesperson for Facebook tells WebProNews:

- Developers can now build deep experiences for Page admins to allow them to consume and update their Page stream from applications, such as those on the desktop.

- Application names will now appear in the stream for stories published with the Open Stream API. This feature will help users better identify from where stories are published, and more easily discover the applications their friends use.

- Publishing to the stream is now as simple as share – just a couple lines of JavaScript.

Developers can now access the full stream from Faecbook Pages that publish posts to their streams. Facebook has also created a way for apps to publish to the stream on behalf of a page.

"Once a Page admin grants permission to the application for that Page, your application can request the publish_stream permission for the Page by passing a new special parameter when you prompt for the permission," explains Facebook’s Yariv Sadan. "This enables a profile selector in the permission dialog. Your application can now post stories on behalf of the Page using any of the stream.publish calls just like it would for a user. You can do this through any the methods described for extended permissions including JavaScript (showPermissionDialog) or directly targeting the prompt_permissions.php URL; we’ll describe the new parameters in these documents."

More details about the updates to the Open Stream APIs can be found here. 

Facebook recently announced the Live Stream Box, which lets webmasters integrate a real-time social viewing experience on their site. A spokesperson for Facebook tells WebProNews, "Yesterday, CNN.com, MTV.com and other major networks implemented the technology for Michael Jackson’s Memorial, where about 1 million users posted approximately 800,000 status updates in just a few hours."

Today Facebook has announced another social widget that webmasters can use to bring the Facebook experience to their site. It’s called the Fanbox. "Facebook Page owners can now add the Fan Box, a Facebook Connect-enabled widget, to their website with a few lines of code to bring content from their Facebook Page into their site and convert visitors into fans on Facebook," the spokesperson says.

To include the Fan box, you only need to grab a few lines of javascript from your Facebook page. Simply click "Add Fan Box to your site," which is located underneath your page’s profile picture. Once you click it, you can choose whether or not you want to include the stream and fans. Further customization options can be found here.

This could be a great way to increase your number of fans on Facebook. In turn, this can of course increase traffic to your site, and theoretically, it can continue in that fashion.

Keep in mind, the Fan Box comes equipped with a nice "Become a Fan" button, which might look nice on your site. You can see how this can easily lead to a nice boost in Facebook fans. More info on the box here.

PC World is pointing to an interesting study that has found that some popular social sites are not really deleting you photos when you think they are. When the average user deletes a photo they have posted on Facebook for example, they assume that photo is gone.

This is not always the case however. The University of Cambridge has discovered that at least seven popular sites might still have those photos live for as many as thirty days. These seven sites are:

- Facebook
- MySpace
- Bebo
- hi5
- LiveJournal
- SkyRock
- Xanga

Meanwhile, sites like Windows Live Spaces, Orkut, Photobucket, and Flickr were able to remove photos almost immediately.

In actuality, the offending sites have removed the images from their servers. It’s just that the images still resided on content delivery networks, which store them. BBC News quotes a Facebook spokesperson on the matter:

"When a user deletes a photograph from Facebook it is removed from our servers immediately. However, URLs to photographs may continue to exist on the Content Delivery Network (CDN) after users delete them from Facebook, until they are overwritten. Overwriting usually happens after a short period of time." 

Those trying to manage their online reputations are going to have to consider that their efforts might not be enough in some cases. If nothing else, this should be a lesson to think about what photos you are posting of yourself to begin with.

Update: Facebook launched the App Directory, App Verification Program, and ne App Profile Pages today.

Original Article: In the coming weeks, Facebook will formally launch its App Verification program, a new Application Directory, and new App Profile Pages, a spokesperson for Facebook tells WebProNews. Each of these will allow users to more easily discover and interact with the applications that are most relevant and valuable to them, they say.

This all makes perfect sense considering the company is getting ready to test a payments system that would allow for the exchange of currency through third party apps on Facebook. Facebook is going to want such a system to get huge in the future, so making apps easily accessible to the people who would be interested in them the most is a smart move.

Current Application Directory

Facebook’s Application Directory boasts over 52,000 apps that have gone live since Facebook Platform was opened up two years ago. The new directory will include: 

Improved categories – A refreshed list of categories that more accurately represents the apps listed within

Updated App Profile Pages – These will look like public profile pages, including the tabbed structure that will let developers communicate with fans of the app in the news feed. This will make sending out updates easier.

Stream of Application Stories: The new directory homepage will feature a stream of stories that users’ friends generate from apps. "This stream will expose applications in a socially-relevant way and help the millions of users who visit the Application Directory each month stay updated with their friends’ activity on Facebook," says a post on the Facebook Developer Blog.

These changes should greatly affect how Facebook users engage with applications, which is exactly what Facebook needs to do if it plans to monetize a payments system that is based on apps. It’s also great news for the app developers because the new changes should provide a better means of engagement from users, and an overall better sense of visibility.