It’s confirmed that Google is doing much more than just dabbling in online apps, they are now entering into the web based apps space with full Google force.  The new tagline says it all:

Search, Ads and Apps

Over the last year, Google has consumed the company’s Writely (creators of a web based word processor app), iRows (web based spreadsheet app), and most recently Tonic (web base slide show app).

Just the other week, a representative from Google said their goal wasn’t to go head to head with Microsoft in the office application world, but based on its new tagline, it appears that this is exactly what Google is doing.

Google will offer the web based office-type apps for free to the regular user and will license use for a fee to companies.  Yay!  That’s one way to cut down on pirated software.  Let’s face it - it’s difficult for the average user to pay the steep price for Microsoft Office. 

Will Google overtake Microsoft?  That remains to be seen.  The downside to web apps is that they are currently much slower than desktop apps – however much more convenient, useful, and now free. 

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The huge surge of popularity in SalesForce.com’s CRM ‘non-software’ shed some interesting light on the desperate need for an intuitive customer relationship management tool in the business marketplace.  If your company has more than one person handling customer service inquiries, some sort of CRM application is a must have.

But how exactly are company’s using CRM software like SalesForce to grow their businesses? 

• To build better customer relationships – Customer like to know that they are more than just an account number.  When they call in for pre-sales questions or for service, they want to feel like you remember them, their questions, and their specific issues that they discussed in previous calls

• Identifying trends and problem areas – Because CRM’s can collect so much statistical data, you may discover business trends that lead to money making opportunities or prevent serious revenue drains.

• Better reporting – in order to set goals, you’ve got to have measurable data.  Using a CRM, you can track turnaround time on customer service inquiries, send and track satisfaction surveys, and visually graph your goals through the CRM’s built-in charting and reporting mechanisms. 

There are quite a few different types of CRM software out there, all with varying degrees of features and benefits.  There are free CRM applications, software based CRM applications, and Software as a Service (SaaS) CRM’s like SalesForce where you have the benefit of utilizing multi-million dollar software for a small monthly use cost.    

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In the past there were Google Desktop Gadgets – these are nifty little items that anyone could add to their Google personalized home page.  These gadgets were primarily custom programmed by enthusiasts and companies seeking a way to stay in front of viewers but now anyone can build a gadget.

The new personalized gadgets allow individuals to upload personal information into a web app that others can place on their homepage for a literal “portal” into a friend’s world.  Instead of focusing on mass appeal like the previous gadgets, Google is billing the new gadgets have a more personalized, intimate appeal. 

But can you use the new Google Gadgets for business – you bet!  There are any number of ways that you can personalize these new gadgets to stay in front of the people you want to stay in front of.  Keep in mind that, like everything in the world of social media marketing, you’re gadget has got to be interesting and useful to earn the real estate of you target audience’s homepage. 

Here are some ideas:

Framed photo – Display an image of a featured daily product or service – offer featured products or services at a nice % discount.   

Free Form – Use it to send tips or breaking news of interest to your target audience

Countdown – Display the time left until a featured event or sale

These are ideas for 3 of the 7 new gadgets – how many more can you come up with?

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As covered by Google Blogoscoped, the new “iGoogle” logo refers to the personalization of Google. I use Gmail and have customized home page with my favorite RSS feeds, but when is too personal too much?

I was surprised to find out a few months ago that Google Web History had been tracking ALL of my search history under my profile – not just for their own stats, but for anyone logged in under my profile to view! That’s when I thought things had gone a little too far.

Think about it… if you’re sharing a computer in the house, Google will collect and make readily available all of the searches you and anyone else has made while logged into your profile.

You may have given someone your Gmail password – if so they can now see much more than just your email.

Also, I sometimes log into client’s Google Analytics accounts – If I don’t log out and they have Search History enabled, I can see all of the things they were searching for and they get a record of all the searches I made until I remembered to log out.

Luckily, you can turn search history “off,” and clear your history, but like everyone else that I’ve talked to, search history was enabled and collecting data long before we ever realized it.

Google spins the search history feature differently. They highlight the benefits of being able to search through your OWN history to find things that you may have forgotten to bookmark, or didn’t know you wanted to bookmark until too late. I think there are other checks and balances for that, like my browser’s history tool and the results page link color change from blue to purple that shows which links I’ve clicked on in the past.

Google search history just seems a little TOO personal – what do you think?

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Real estate is one of the most competitive industries in the search engines.  Maybe it’s time for a different approach?  When people are shopping for real estate, they’re not just looking for a house, they are looking for a lifestyle – and that requires a lot of information from schools, to recreational activities, to average neighborhood incomes, and so much more. 

Want some examples, check out these successful real estate websites that are really bringing in the traffic and generating buzz for their usefulness. 

There are two ways to accomplish this.  You can hire a team of people to research and update information and post it on the site.  Or you can pull the information in dynamically with a custom software application. 

Trulia for example uses custom programming to scrape real estate sites and brings all of the information into one place in a way that is extremely useful.  Almost all of these sites incorporate Google maps in their searches to give users a perspective of where exactly homes are located.  Zillow even offers satellite images of the neighborhood right on the search page.   

While smaller real estate agencies may not be able to, nor have the desire to, compete with these big competitors, adding useful web applications to local real estate sites can certainly help them gain the lead over local competition.

What are your customers really looking for when shopping for a home?  How can you provide it in a way that is informative and fun to use?  If you can imagine it, there is most likely a way to make it happen. 

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