IT Lesson

Since we launched the Google Apps Marketplace last month, we’ve been pleased to see a growing number of developers launching products and finding phenomenal success selling integrated apps to Google Apps customers. As more ISVs enter the Marketplace, we want to make sure we see this success continue and accelerate.

Next week, we’ll be hosting a webinar detailing best practices for a successful launch in the Marketplace. We’ll cover the most critical tactics for generating installs of your app based on our learnings from apps that have already launched. We’ll also cover some of the extras you may want to consider to get added mileage out of your launch, as well as ongoing marketing tactics for you to pursue.

Whether you’re totally unfamiliar with the Marketplace, currently developing an app, or have already launched an app in the Marketplace, this webinar should help you maximize your chances of successfully launching an app in the Marketplace. Please join us!

Best practices for a successful launch in the Google Apps Marketplace
Thursday, April 29, 2010 - 10:00 a.m. PDT / 1:00 p.m. EDT / 6:00 p.m. London
Register here for the Webinar.

Posted by Chris Kelly, Google Apps Marketplace Team

Recently, I was asked to work with a client to help them improve their process. In some of my other readings I found a list of 6 questions used by Alistair Cockburn in his research to search for the most successful properties of software methodologies. We used his questions to interview the team and found the results to be fascinating and useful. The interviewees took on average 3 hours to answer these 6 questions:

1. Please give me a brief history of the project: timeframes, changes in project size, problem domain, technology used, key events in the life of the project, the general approach.

2. What would you say are the things that worked in the project?

3. What would you say are the things that did not work well?

4. If you were going to start another project, or give advice to someone starting a similar project, what things would you be sure to put in place (recommend)? What are your priorities for those?

5. If you were going to start another project, or give advice to someone starting a similar project, what would you work (recommend) to avoid, or keep from happening?

6. What else?

Pretty simple list - I hope you find these useful as well.

In 2013, we have made a lot of enhancements to our developer ecosystem. From the Admin SDK to the Google+ API for Domains, weve provided developers with better tools to build applications that integrate with, and add functionality to, Google Apps.

We are starting to roll out some significant changes that will make it easier for developers to build, deploy, and market applications for domain installation. This is a major improvement to our existing Google Apps Marketplace experience that we originally launched in 2010. You can get started right away by following our documentation here.

Some of the major enhancements in the new Google Apps Marketplace:

Improved security — Domain admins can install and authorize your applications for specific organizational units rather than the whole domain.
Consistent development experience — Use OAuth 2.0 for authorization and manage Google APIs in the Google Developer console.
Test before publishing — Test your app easily using the “Test Install” button in the Google Developers console vs. having to publish a live app.
Simplified publishing experience — Publish to the Chrome Web Store to use a single app listing for apps that work with both Google Drive and Google Apps for Business.
Deeper integration — Integrate with services like Google Drive and Google+ and into Google’s new app launcher.
Easier discoverability — Domain admins can discover your great apps directly from the Admin console.

We love our developers who are building third-party solutions for Google users. Please provide feedback on how we can improve the experience and help you connect with over 5 million companies that use Google Apps to improve how they get work done. Here are some great apps to get you inspired - Promevo gPanel, Draw.io, UberConference, AODocs, Spanning Calendar Undelete, Flashpanel, and MindMeister. Get started with your Google Apps integration today!

Arun Nagarajan   profile Arun is a Developer Advocate on Google Apps. Arun works closely with the community of partners, customers and developers to help them build compelling applications on top of Google Apps. Arun is originally from the Boston area and enjoys basketball and snowboarding.

To increase the discovery of your Google Apps Marketplace listings, you can now embed an Integrate with Google button on your website, marketing pages, blog posts, and other properties. This lets domain administrators install your apps with a single click without leaving your site. Once they click the button, administrators can enable your app for all users (or just some of them) just like they would from the Google Apps Marketplace.

Here’s what the Integrate with Google button looks like on CloudLock.com:



To put the Integrate with Google button on your site, just embed the code below anywhere you want to display the button:

<script src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js"></script>
<div class="g-additnow" data-applicationid="your-app-id"></div>

Check out the developer documentation to start integrating today.

Hiranmoy Saha Google+ Hiranmoy Saha is a Software Engineer working on the Google Apps Ecosystem.

Heres another little nifty keyboard shortcut to make your technology experience a little easier!

This is another tip that seems to work primarily in Microsoft Word, but I really do wish it worked in other programs!

So my post last week was horrible timing!  The morning that I wrote the post I read that Google Reader wouldnt be supported anymore.  Of course I didnt read the article until the following day, but I soon realized my post was quite possible a waste since the followers box probably wont be supported anymore... oops!  (I have heard mixed thoughts about this... some people are saying the followers box will be staying.  I guess well have to wait and see!  Read here for Googles official post, and here for some thoughts on the matter)

Basically, for anyone who hasnt read all of the posts circulating everyone elses blogs... you MUST make this switch before July 1, 2013 or you could risk losing all of the blogs you follow!


Well, with this in mind, I decided to extend the poll for another week and write up an emergency post: how to continue to follow you favorite blogs!  Its a little bit of a nuisance at first, but hopefully the change will be for the better!




The poll for next week will remain the same, but expect some surprise tutorials this week regarding Bloglovin to help make the switch a bit easier for you!

Quick, quick... get this post up before midnight so it counts as a Technology Tuesday post!!!  The winner this week was the long awaited poll item... how to take a screenshot of your computer screen!

Here is the tutorial!




As for next weeks poll, Im going to add a how to embed videos in smart notebook.  I havent done any Smart Notebook tutorials yet and I would really love to... so Im curious to see how this one fairs in the poll!

This week was very close in the polls... but the majority of you voted for me to blog about how to make a form to post on your blog or website!


 Heres the poll so you can see just how close it was!


Now... onto the tutorial! 





Now, I know that I didnt detail how to embed the form on your blog... if thats something youre interested in doing, be sure to vote on the poll for "How to add HTML/embed code to a blog post!"  For those of you who are familiar with how to add the code on your blog, you can use the embed code from the drop-down menu in the picture just above this text!




For next weeks poll, Im going to add another request - how to take the background out of a photograph (so that the photo has a white background!

This tip is probably the one I use the most!  Do you ever need to change your text to capitalize it?  e.g.:from "happy thankgiving!" to "Happy Thanksgiving!" to "HAPPY THANKSGIVING!"  Its actually surprisingly easy to do!

I do this fun lesson with my kids every year, and they just love it!  This year, I revamped the lesson with some tens-frames to really help students grasp basic coin value!

I usually start the lesson reading a book about pennies and talking about how pennies are worth one cent.  Then of course I model how to count pennies into the tens frames.  I place a card at each students seat at the table, and have them go to their seats and count out that many pennies.

Then, comes the fun part... the dancing!  I have the students dance around to room, usually to an instrumental of some popular song... last year it was Party Rock Anthem, this year it was Gangham Style!  When the music stops, they have to find a chair and count out that many pennies!



They just love it... and its the perfect way to introduce counting pennies to a kindergartener while reviewing numbers 11-20!

You can grab this item, as well as all of my other items, for 28% off today only!!!

This is a post for all of the bloggers out there... how to claim your blog on Bloglovin!