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Integrating with Google Apps using Gmail contextual gadgets

At this week’s Campfire One event, we launched the new Google Apps Marketplace, making it easier for you to create applications that integrate deeply with Google Apps and sell them to the more than 2 million businesses and 25 million people who use Google Apps.

In addition to the many integration points currently available for Google Apps, like the Google Data APIs, we announced that we will soon open Gmail contextual gadgets as a new extension point for developers. These gadgets can smartly draw information from the web and let users perform relevant actions based on the content of an email message, all without leaving the Gmail inbox. For instance, contextual gadgets currently available in Gmail can detect links in emails to show previews of documents, videos, photos, and more, right inside the messages.

For businesses, Gmail contextual gadgets can boost employee productivity by complementing email in a context-specific and actionable way. Appirio, a cloud solution provider, provided a demonstration of the potential of Gmail contextual gadgets and other experimental features with their new product PS Connect:



Appirio PS Connect shows how Gmail contextual gadgets can draw data from different web applications into relevant email messages, enabling users to make faster and more informed business decisions as they go through their inbox.

Soon we’ll be opening Gmail contextual gadgets as an extension for trusted testing by developers. If you have a good idea for this type of gadget today, please fill out this form. And for those of you who will be attending Google I/O in May, be sure to check out our session on building Gmail contextual gadgets.

Posted by Scott McMullan, Google Apps Partner Lead, Google Enterprise team