Fast on the heels of Monday’s launch of Google App Engine — an initiative to open up Google’s computing infrastructure to third-party developers — Google has opened a new online store: the Google Solutions Marketplace, a portal for applications that assemble use of Google’s APIs (application programming interfaces) or Google Gadgets.

“The Marketplace’s initial focus is connecting customers of our communications and collaboration products, like Google Apps and Enterprise search, with third parties that sell complementary products and services,” wrote Scott McMullan, Google Apps partner lead, on an official blog. “But that’s just a start. We expect to grow to fit the needs of an expanding set of Google customers and developers.”

The online marketplace, though a relatively minor development in itself, is a further sign of Google’s increasing interest in the enterprise. In February, Google re-branded JotSpot — an enterprise-focused wiki company it acquired last year — as Google Sites. And Monday, Salesforce.com — which redefined

business software with its on-demand model — is set to announce that it will start reselling Google Apps to its customers, according to a report by the TechCrunch blog.

Salesforce.com Integration?

Google Apps will be “tightly integrated” into Salesforce.com’s service, TechCrunch said. Such a deal would further a working relationship the companies already have, in which Salesforce.com customers can manage their AdWords accounts. The deal makes sense, according to TechCrunch writer Erick Schonfeld. “Salesforce wants to get as close to Google as it can. And Google wants to sell its apps to enterprise customers (Salesforce has 41,000 of them).”

Google Gadgets, the company’s approach to widgets — mini-applications that can run inside a Web page — is key to its enterprise aspirations. “Gadgets [have] a very approachable coding model, and you can do surprisingly useful things very quickly,” said Jonathan Rochelle, a senior product manager for Google Docs….

Orginal post by Top Tech News