Written by Kevin Purdy

Google’s Apps suite for domain owners and businesses has finally received some star treatment with the launch of the Apps Marketplace. Which Google-friendly apps are free, worth the cost, and entirely useful? These 10 are definitely worth a look.

10. Box.net

Box.net is one of many online file storage sites, but from its launch, it’s been focused on adding features that business and enterprise customers can use. Attached to your own web storage, Box.net’s features shine through. The service has many webapp partners that can fax, print, secure, edit, and otherwise handle all kinds of documents, and Box.net itself can integrate into many enterprise software packages, set up conference calls and web conferences centered around documents, and otherwise link together the files you’ve stashed away and the people who work on them. [Apps Marketplace link] Price: free for Box.net business users, $15 per user per month for new users.

9. SurveyMonkey

It’s an established tool that a lot of organizations are using to collect data on all kinds of topics. Better still, crafting a poll or questionnaire in SurveyMonkey will save you a good deal of time over crafting a spreadsheet and form in Google Docs and manipulating the results. If you needed more incentive, the “Basic” plan is free for groups looking to just do a little smart polling, and “Basic” covers a whole lot of data-swapping goodness. [Apps Marketplace link] Price: Free for basic version, $16.67 and up for advanced features.

8. SlideRocket

Google’s own Presentation app is one of those “Hey, it works” tools, and if you needed to write something up in a pinch, it’s there. SlideRocket, on the other hand, is a surprisingly full-featured presentation editor that doesn’t require a Microsoft license and can be pulled up wherever you or your team have web access. Like the Aviary photo editor (below), installing SlideRocket in your Apps space puts everyone on the same page and centralizes where those presentations get stored. Alas, SlideRocket doesn’t sing in every browser—it doesn’t play well with Firefox in Snow Leopard, for instance—but when it works, it’s pretty wow-inducing. [Apps Marketplace link] Price: 30-day free trial, $12 per user per month after that; Education and “lite” versions available.

7. Google Short Links

Why would you use Google’s own link shortening service for your Apps account over popular, free options like bit.ly or is.gd? Primarily because the links you can provide clients and partners—like GlobexIndustries.com/B2B—are more stately, feel safer, and haven’t already been snapped up on the major shortening servers. It also helps that you can make them far easier to remember than a random assortment of letters and numbers. It’s free, too, and that’s a pretty good selling point. [Apps Marketplace link] Price: Free.

6. Shared Contacts

It’s unfortunate that Google’s contacts manager doesn’t make it easy for people and businesses to create and update common sets of contacts—perhaps they consider that the stuff of big enterprise packages. Their loss is Shared Contacts’ gain. With the package installed, Apps domains can create new groups of contacts, set their read/write permissions, and have them show up for everybody in that group. It’s not a one-click process, it would appear, but once Shared Contacts is installed, you’ll likely never have to see or send email with “Phone #?” in the subject line. Apps Marketplace link] Price: free trial available, $50 per year after that.

5. Gbridge

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a great thing to have. Having it free, and connected through your Google Apps’ chat service to your other computers and project partners, is way better. By hooking up Gbridge, on-the-go Apps users have access to shared files, backup through their own computers or those of others in their group, screen sharing and control for tech support or demonstration, and the kind of basic VPN access that can be oh so helpful. [Apps Marketplace link] Price: Free.

4. TripIt

Traveling is taxing enough on its own. Frantic text messages asking “When do u land?” and the like should be unnecessary. Implementing TripIt for your site or group will win you fans, because it’s like having an employee whose only job is to organize trips and keep everybody in the loop. As an individual app, TripIt does a great job turning travel confirmation emails into organized, mapped, linked-up itineraries. Installed on Apps, it enables Ted to see when Lisa is leaving and arriving, tells Bob when to pick her up at the airport and provides directions, and lets everyone know if the flight is delayed. [Apps Marketplace link] Price: free.

3. ManyMoon or Zoho Projects

For very small businesses, personal sites, and less goal-oriented groups, the free, socially adept ManyMoon may fit the bill for your project management needs. Group task management, tagging, micro-blogging for teams, and time tracking come with the free price tag. For larger organizations and those with a real need for deadlines, nested goals and tasks, and constant contact, Zoho Projects is a more robust and agile solution, one that integrates well into Google’s own app offerings—project deadlines and events, for instance, can be automatically added to team member’s calendars. Zoho can also serve as a kind of “project intranet,” providing wikis, shared file spaces, and even public web pages. [Apps Marketplace link: ManyMoon, Zoho Projects] Price: ManyMoon free; Zoho Projects free for one project, $12/month and up for unlimited users.

2. Aviary

At its own web site, Aviary hosts a very capable image editing suite that runs entirely inside a browser. Hooked into the files you’re already hosting and using on your site or in your group, it gives everybody a kind of Photoshop lite to work with, and avoids the worries of losing that one version of a graphic your client liked better. [Apps Marketplace link] Price: free.

1. OffiSync

It’s not for lack of trying, but Google’s web-based Docs app can’t do everything that Microsoft’s desktop Office suite can pull. Whether it’s revision tracking, macro recording, or database integration, you can skip the back-and-forth file swapping with the Apps version of OffiSync, a utility that does just what you might think. Save a file in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, and with OffiSync set up, it will save simultaneously to your Google Apps space. You get the feature-rich editing services of Office and the easy sharing and peace-of-mind storage of Google, all at once. [Apps Marketplace link] Price: free.

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Collected by John Hudson

visulogik/Flickr under a CC license For those who have misguidedly failed to develop an Armageddon plan, it’s not too late. Eschuk, a user on the social media site Reddit, has created a detailed, eight-phase, 1600-word survival plan in response to the question, “If you became the last person on Earth, what would you do? Realistically.” Eschuk’s vision is nothing if not realistic. We owe Web sites like Kottke for salvaging this nugget from the dustbin of Internet history. Here’s an abridged look at what this inventive, earnest dreamer would do. For the full version, see here.
“Pre-Phase Phase: Before Anything: Eat Exotic Fresh Fruits while they are around. They come from so far away that, odds are depending where you live, you will never ever get to have Banana, Pomegranite, Starfruit or Mango again in your life. Savor every bite. Make Fruit Leathers and Freeze what you cannot stomach to consume.You will also need to bone up on Vitamin C while you’re doing the most work.

[...]

Phase 2 – Secure your Food: There’s a ton of food still around in the world that’ll be good for the next decade. Rice and Beans, Canned Fruits and Veggies. The Average Domesticated Human relies on these foods and cannot subsist “off of the land.” …

• Sysco Trucks are refrigerated and can probably stay cool a week or two, and are likely chock full of the meals you’d otherwise be served after they’ve been microwaved at Olive Garden, Johnny Carino’s, Applebees, TGIFridays, McDonalds, etcetc. If they haven’t been looted already, they’re a great solution to a “freezer farm.” Now that you have all the time in the world, figure out how to use RV Propane Freezers to keep these trucks cool. Move them to your home, reinforce them in concrete and keep them free of bugs and animals.

Phase 3 – Home Compound: Insects and animals will grow plentifully without humans now. Wild Dogs, Bears, Coyotes, Mountain Lions, Feral Cats are all now the enemy. Malaria, Lymes Disease, Bebesia can be carried by insects and with Rabies, will likely grow out of control without human intervention.

• Secure an area, preferably within a high-walled region to keep bears and other predators away. Chain Link Fences need to be painted to prevent rusting. Paint them with motor oil a couple of times in the summer (if you don’t give a rat’s ass about the environment now)
• Drive Vehicles over to your Compound while they still work. Mobile Homes, School Buses, Fire Engine Tankers & Ladders, Electrical Contractor Cherry Pickers (for Hunting Blinds), Flatbeds, Box Trucks.

[...]

Phase 5 – Recreation

• Find the closest highway and burn all the gasoline you can syphon out of all the cars around in a Maserati, Ferrari or Ford Focus by risking your fucking life. This insane maneuver might help you keep some sanity… but in 2-years-time gasoline will have gone stale and most cars will sit where they were.
• There are some propane based cars and Go-Karts. Offhand, I don’t know where I’d find one around here so I’m in a bad position… the internet will be down and “propane go-karts” won’t be found in phone books.

[...]

Final Phase – Seal your fate.

You are the last of your kind. Evolution may replace humans with another Sentient Creature capable of interpreting the past, but for now, this is it. As representative for humanity, you do not want to suffer. No sense in bleeding to death over the course of several days pinned underneath a mountain of rubble.

• Always have the ability to kill yourself nearby. Holster a classy 6-shooter in your shoulder, at your ankle or your hip at all times.

The Debate

• Last Person on Earth Eschuk, Reddit

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