Ideas and reviews for websites, film, business, products, and designMicroblog your ideas and be discovered

Tuesday night Google announced the creation of the Google Apps Marketplace , a place for third-party applications developers to share their work with the community of Google Apps users. Currently, businesses can use enterprise versions of Google’s popular suite of web apps, and with the new Apps Marketplace, they can integrate outside applications into these services. One of the applications launching in the App Marketplace is Expensify , an online tool for gathering and reporting expenses. Sponsor Expensify, whose motto is “Expense reports that don’t suck,” prides itself on its ability to create detailed and IRS certified expense reports without the need for a single scrap of paper. Users can associate a credit card with their account for automatic tracking of purchases, and Expensify will create electronic versions of the receipt, eliminating the need for paper receipt hoarding. For expenses like hotel and travel reservations that require special treatment, users can email the confirmation to Expensify and the app will generate the data and include a PDF of the email in the report. If you use the wrong card or pay with cash, mobile applications for iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Palm devices allow users to snap a picture of the receipt and send it to Expensify. When sending reports, Expensify makes full color PDFs with tables, charts and graphs of the data. Recipients can accept, modify or reject the expense reports and can even reimburse the expenses from directly within Expensify by printing a check or sending a payment via direct deposit. Or, if need be, the reports can be send to third-party bookkeepers for review. Expensify’s CEO David Barrett hopes, however, that small businesses and startups taking advantage of Expensify will be able to cut bookkeepers out of their work flow entirely. “Expense reports affect everyone of all business sizes, from sole proprietorships to million dollar businesses…Everyone has this problem and everyone hates the current solution,” Barrett told ReadWriteWeb Tuesday. “One thing that makes Expensify unique from other applications is it’s not built for accountants; it’s built for the people actually doing it.” With the new Google Apps Marketplace, companies looking to implement the app into their business can simply add it as an extension of Google Apps. This means that employees won’t have to create new Expensify accounts; the application does that automatically in the background when added to Google Apps through the Apps Marketplace. From anywhere within Google Apps, users can click the “More” tab at the top of the screen, select “Expenses” and they are directed to Expensify’s site with the help of OpenID. “We are very excited to have Expensify in the Google Apps Marketplace,” said Scott McMullan, Google Apps Partner Lead for Google Enterprise in a press release Tuesday. “Through the Google Apps Marketplace, software vendors like Expensify are helping us build a rich ecosystem of integrated apps that work seamlessly with Google Apps.” One of the large benefits of the app is that it is relatively inexpensive. It is free for users to send reports, but costs $5 per month, per submitter for managers with the first two submitters free. Integration with FreshBooks and QuickBooks makes Expensify a solid choice to track and report expenses for small businesses and startups. Additionally, Expensify is a great example of how third-party developers can now use Google’s new marketplace to build, integrate and market their products. Startups can use and develop on Google apps like Gmail, Calendar and Docs instead of creating their own. This makes it much easier to quickly launch products and features, but running a business built on the shoulders of Google may not necessarily be a long-term solution. The marketplace does, however, provide great exposure potential for apps. Discuss

The news that Google is buying DocVerse is now official. The reasons why Google bought this small company can be learned by taking a look at the people who started this small company out of Seattle. Shan Sinha and Alex DeNeui worked at Microsoft before launching DocVerse in 2007. Sinha ran product strategy for Sharepoint and SQL, 1.6B and $3.0B products, respectively. DeNeui served as program manager on the SQL Server Strategy Team and the program manager for the WinFS ISV Team. Sponsor The two have built a strong company that will help Google in its battle with Microsoft. Sinha and DeNeui know Microsoft products. They know the Microsoft processes and its culture. DocVerse understands the challenges of working on deeply collaborative technologies. That’s a goal for Google as it continues to develop Google Apps. The DocVerse application installs a lightweight plug-in that is installed in the background of the user’s machine. The plug-in opens a widget in the document sidebar that includes a unique link. Any time a user makes an update to a Microsoft docment, the plug-in syncs the web page that is associated with the document. Every modification gets synced. When multiple people work on a document, the updates are made through the plug-in and versions are stored online. Syncing will become increasingly important for companies as more of the workforce uses smartphones. Google does a good job with email synchronization. But enterprise collaboration tools have a higher level of complexity. Co-editing, for instance, has to carry from the PC to the mobile device among mulitple users. Interestingly, Jive Software uses the DocVerse functionality for their product add-on: Jive Connects for Microsoft Office. The competition is getting fierce in the enterprise space. We wonder how this competition will affect the DocVerse relationship with Jive. Discuss

Just because you’ve been in talks doesn’t mean the deal is done. Entrepreneurs need to remain diligent about timelines in order to ensure that the deals they’ve set in motion actually come to fruition. If you’re negotiating a term sheet, building a partnership or on the verge of an acquisition, get the papers signed. Legendary GRP VC investor Mark Suster has seen his fair share of successful deals, and he writes, “don’t pop the champagne until the ink is dry on the contract and the money is in the bank.” Sponsor Suster wrote a great post on the need to close deals in a timely manner. While it’s important to negotiate well, he’s seen firsthand how deals can go up in smoke if given too much time. Suster raised a round right before a market crash and is convinced that if he’d waited even a month, his offers would have been rescinded. He explains that market crashes, deal fatigue, complacency, or losing your deal sponsor could mean the difference between a banner year and a missed opportunity. Some suggestions to expedite the deal process include: 1. Don’t Over Shop : Although a healthy interest from a number of players is important for leverage, shopping around too much has its downside. Says Suster, “There is a fatigue factor.  If deals drift, people start whisper campaigns.  It is a tight-knit industry.  Like it or not everybody knows each other. ” If you haven’t closed a deal in a timely manner others may assume something negative is holding you back. 2. Don’t Grind Every Detail : Know the important points that you want to negotiate and stick to them. He writes that you shouldn’t get caught up in inconsequential details as they’ll potentially add weeks to the legal process and you’ll risk creating ill will with your newfound partners. 3. Don’t Be Complacent : Suster suggests that you hold all those involved to their deadlines and ensure that lawyers get the documents out when promised. If someone is behind, call them and let them know you are both interested and that you’re willing to fly out and meet them or take calls in the middle of the night to acommodate them. 4. Get People In Person : Put yourself, your negotiating partner, both sides of lawyers and the other party in a room to hash out the details. Suster stresses that it’s important to create goals for what you want to accomplish and take breaks to gain consent from any higher authorities. Discuss

Peter Kafka of All Things Digital has come out with some more details , which he says come from “people who have been briefed by the company”, about Twitter’s expected advertising platform . According to Kafka, the platform will be primarily search based, distributed via third-party applications and will appear in the familiar 140 character tweet format. He makes sure to include a caveat, because there’s been a bit of confusion since reports of an “imminent” launch the other day, but the details mesh with what we’ve heard so far. Sponsor “Everyone I’ve talked to cautions that the plans are evolving and that there are plenty of details to work out,” Kafka writes. “Including a launch date, though it seems as if the first half of this year is a very safe bet.” When we first wrote about the ad platform this week, it was based on an article in MediaPost , which reported that a Twitter ad platform was “imminent”. Since then, Seth Goldstein , who led the talk on which the reports were based, has back pedaled, saying he was only referring to a November statement by Twitter regarding its advertising future. Goldstein since called MediaPost’s article ” speculation “, but this seems to only apply in relation to the time frame. Anamitra Banerji, head of product management and monetization at Twitter, is still on record with MediaPost as saying that the company is working on an ad platform, which is currently in the test phase. According to Kafka, this is what we currently know about the developing ad platform: Ads will be tied to Twitter searches, in the same way that Google’s (GOOG) original ads did. So a search for, say, “laptop”, may generate an ad for Dell. The ads will only show up in search results, which means users who don’t search for something won’t see them in their regular Twitterstream. The ads will use the Twitter format — 140 characters or less — and will be distributed via the third party software and services that use Twitter’s API. The services will have the option to display the ads, and Twitter will share revenue with those that do. Twitter will work with ad agencies and buyers to seed the program, but plans on moving to a self-serve model, like Google offers, down the road. The details jive with what Banerji told the MediaPost at the meeting in question. “We don’t think of ourselves as a Web site — essentially it’s a platform,” Banerji said. “We don’t really control the ads or the way the tweets are viewed and then consumed. We are completely open around other people innovating around us. Ultimately, publishers should have choice. But the one area of concern for us — and that’s if bad ads get identified in Twitter — it’s a problem for us in the long term. So, we should do whatever we can to encourage positive behavior.” An ad platform that leaves the appearance of advertising up to the program just calls out for a freemium model within third-party Twitter apps, where paying users could avoid seeing Twitter advertising. Or perhaps we’ll see the emergence of more open source Twitter applications as advertising begins to appear in our previously ad-free apps. So while reports of Twitter unveiling the ad platform at SXSW may be a bit premature, it seems that there is no question that it is in the works and will take on many attributes of Google’s AdWords program. Discuss

Is ‘checking in’ at places using location-based mobile apps like Foursquare and Brightkite resulting in us enjoying life a little less ? Is there such a thing as too much data for a fun activity such as running? We address these and other questions in the final installment of our interview with Adam Greenfield, author of Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing . Modern web applications are packed with features that ostensibly connect us more to the real world and our activities in it. Foursquare uses location data to connect us with places and people. Nike+ shoes deliver data from your feet to your iPod. All of this new data from the real world is good progress, right? Yes, the more data the better! On the other hand, is our focus on data distracting us from actually enjoying life? Sponsor Adam Greenfield doesn’t like Foursquare , a location-based social networking mobile app that has become popular over the past year. He told me that he loved Foursquare at first and enjoyed ‘checking in’ at places. But then he found that he spent the first few minutes of going into a place updating Foursquare with his location, which he realized could be time better spent actually enjoying the place and socializing with the people around him. Technology has always had an anti-social element to it. For example, Twitter . When you’re in a social situation and you stop to tweet it, that disconnects you from the real world (at least for 30 seconds while you tap out 140 characters on your mobile phone). Step back further into the mists of technological progress and there is the issue of cellphone calls in social situations. When you’re talking with someone and that person’s cellphone rings, then they answer it and have a conversation with someone else on their cellphone – is there anything more annoying than that from a social point of view? So technology can be anti-social; nothing new in that. But is a mobile location-based app like Foursquare not only anti-social, but also distracting us from enjoying our surroundings because we’re so intent on documenting where we are? The counter argument is that products like Foursquare make it easier for you to meet up with your friends in real life, particularly if you’re young and socializing a lot. For example you might see that a few of your friends are at a local cafe or pub, so you go out to join them there. That definitely makes Foursquare a fun product. But it’s a use case that mostly applies to young, highly social people. It’s not just location-based apps that are potentially killjoys. Greenfield also spoke about his experience with Nike+ running shoes , which come with a sensor that tracks your run and sends the data to your iPod. As we explained earlier this month , Nike+ has its own social network . Nike+ can also send updates to Twitter and post a status report on Facebook. According to Adam Greenfield, Nike+ changed the way he ran. Because the shoes could quantify his running performance, he said that they made him faster and more competitive. However, he also began to feel guilty if he missed a run – because the data would suffer as a result. So despite making him a better runner, the Nike+ shoes resulted in him “not having as much fun.” What do you think – are you finding that modern web apps, whether location-based mobile apps or products with sensors or something else data-driven, are making you enjoy life just a little less? Are you focusing too much on the data, rather than just living life? Let us know in the comments. See also Part 1 of our interview with Adam Greenfield , in which we discussed the impact of the iPhone and other smartphones on the Internet of Things . We also talked about the differences between the U.S. and Asia in adoption of these technologies. In Part 2 , we focused on how the iPad may become the missing link between Internet-connected items in your home, for example the Internet fridge, and the Web. Photo credits: whatleydude ; Ed Yourdon Discuss