Apple iPhone and Google Android apps get a lot of buzz these days, but TripIt likes the bump it is getting out of the newly launched and less publicized Google Apps Marketplace for business.
The Google Apps Marketplace, launched in early March, enables companies to build apps to Google business products, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and numerous others.
As of this writing on March 31, a TripIt app, launched in mid-March, was the fourth top-installed app in the Google Apps Marketplace. It was also the fifth top-rated app out of several dozen.
I contacted TripIt to see what the company thought of Google's new homepage travel link and Google's giving prominent placement to a TripIt widget on the Google Travel the world page.
Although Google apparently launched the Travel the world page only yesterday, Scott Hintz, TripIt's co-founder and vice president of business development, says the company already has felt its impact.
TripIt doesn't pay Google anything for its placement there, and the travel link from the Google homepage was a surprise, Hintz says.
"We've definitely have seen a spike," Hintz says. "It's hard to quantify right now since it's so early. We've definitely seen a bump. It's meaningful."
However, Hintz says TripIt's the incremental traffic TripIt is attracting from its app in the Google Apps marketplace is even more significant.
TripIt has a business travel focus, and Hintz says integrating its free app with Google apps through cloud computing was much easier than the prospect of tying into other business platforms like Microsoft Outlook.
Here's some information and specs on becoming a vendor through the Google Apps Marketplace.
Hintz feels that TripIt is well-positioned to work with Google and has an "open door" with the company because, like Google, TripIt is agnostic about where travel is booked.
On the other hand, Hintz says, "with Expedia, you get an Expedia app."