Google is catching up but it’s strategy is a little different. It is targeting small businesses and enterprises instead of end users. Over 2 million businesses are now using Google Apps and now they’ve also launched Google Apps marketplace to share the wealth with third party developers.

Google Apps Marketplace will let developers to target the Google App users with their applications that are hosted on Google Cloud. There are already 50 companies listed on the marketplace with some really good apps that range from Project management to Payroll and Invoicing to Software Development and Prototype building online studio.

Google today announced:

Today, we're making it easier for these users and software providers to do business in the cloud with a new online store for integrated business applications. The Google Apps Marketplace allows Google Apps customers to easily discover, deploy and manage cloud applications that integrate with Google Apps.

The great thing is that Google has eliminated any privacy issues with you having full control over what the app can use (Calendars, GMail, Google docs etc). Besides, the apps will mostly be hosted on the Google’s Cloud.

Visit the Google App Marketplace