When Google launched the Google Apps Marketplace, I was pretty excited about the prospects of this marketplace. While Ben wrote about how it will positively impact the SMB segment, I was getting ecstatic about its potential on the enterprise side. 

I think few years from now, when we look back in this space, we may even conclude that this is a pivotal moment that catapulted Google into a strong player in the enterprise market. This has a potential to not only lift the prospects of Google on the enterprise side, this move will also strengthen the future of SaaS in a big way.

In my opinion, Google not only enabled somewhat bigger players to sell in their marketplace, they also provided a way for developers and other smaller service providers to play in the marketplace. For example, individuals can offer services like setting up Google Apps for $30. All they have to do is to guide the customer to signup for Google Apps, setup the DNS records and activate different services in Google Apps. Any marketplace that opens up many opportunities for small and big players alike is a true marketplace and it has the potential to develop into a vibrant ecosystem.
Somewhere in the hype about the marketplace, another interesting news got lost in the noise. Google has opened up the Google Apps script gallery to developers and users so that they can publish their scripts in the gallery for others to consume. 
Today, we are excited to make Google Apps Script available to everyone. Some of you may already be familiar with Google Apps Script within Google Apps, but in case you are new to it, Google Apps Script provides a powerful and flexible scripting environment that lets you automate actions across your spreadsheets, sites, calendars, and many other services.
This is pretty neat. This not only allows experienced developers to add value to Google services, it also opens up opportunity for relatively novice developers to showcase their talent by adding features on top of Google services with their own scripts. All these make Google very attractive for developers and has a potential to ensure a vibrant ecosystem around their services. What do you think?
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Krishnan Subramanian

Krish dons several avatars including entrepreneur in exile, analyst cum researcher, technology evangelist, blogger, ex-physicist, social/political commentator, etc.. My main focus is research and analysis on various high impact topics in the fields of Open Source, Cloud Computing and the interface between them. I also evangelize Open Source and Cloud Computing in various media outlets, blogs and other public forums. I offer strategic advise to both Cloud Computing and Open Source providers and, also, help other companies take advantage of Open Source and Cloud Computing. In my opinion, Open Source commoditized software and Cloud Computing commoditized computing resources. A combination of these two developments offers a strong competitive advantage to companies of all sizes and shapes. Due to various factors, including fear, the adoption of both Open Source and Cloud Computing are relatively slow in the business sector. So, I take it upon myself to clear any confusion in this regard and educate, enrich and advise users/customers to take advantage of the benefits offered by these technologies. I am also a managing partner in two consulting companies based in India. I blog about Open Source topics at http://open.krishworld.com and Cloud Computing related topics at http://www.cloudave.com.

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