The war between Google and Microsoft is escalating today with the introduction of new technology that makes it easier than ever to build applications that integrate directly with Google Apps.
This new Google Apps API, or application programming interface, provides the “hooks” that turns Google Docs into more of a platform — outside services can now integrate with Google Apps in a deeper way than ever before.
At launch, Google is announcing integrations with a wide range of business apps, including Salesforce, SAP, and Trello, with more to come as more developers adopt that API.
Enlisting these developers is a sign that the search giant is renewing its push to topple Microsoft Office’s stranglehold on workplace productivity.
The new API is starting with the Google Sheets spreadsheet app and Slides presentation tool on the web, but the search giant promises it’ll expand all over. Google also announced an expanded Classroom API for Google Apps for Education that will let homework providers shoot assignments straight into a classroom’s assignment feed.
The basic idea here is that once an outside app is hooked up with Google Apps, you won’t have to worry about exporting your data from, say, Salesforce into Google Sheets or vice versa: It’s all there, and it’s all waiting for you to work with. If your totals change on the spreadsheet, it feeds back into Salesforce, and back again.
It’s designed to be productivity-boosting, since you don’t need to copy multiple versions of your data back and forth. Less tedious click-and-drag, more doing.
“Users were more focused on the process than their goals,” says Google Docs Group Product Manager Ritcha Ranjan.