Will Google and Salesforce bring on the Gooforce?

By Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Sunday, 03 June 2007 10:04

Opinion and Analysis

Google and Salesforce.com are looking to use the force in a partnership due to be announced on Tuesday, rumored to offer a better online CRM experience before an eventual buyout.

PC World has details of a strongly rumored partnership between Google and Salesforce.com to be announced on Tuesday, in a bid to combine Google Apps, Mapping, advertising and more with Salesforce’s CRM, in a bid to fend off Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM software.

Given Salesforce.com’s founder and CEO Marc Benioff’s known animosity towards Microsoft and ardent belief that the online model is much better for customers, especially with the slogan “No Software”, a Google tie-up only makes sense, especially given that Google currently has no CRM offering, and also loves the online model so much it’s building massive data centers practically the size of a small moon in the middle of the US near natural power sources like dams.

Given’s Google’s added focus on businesses through the Google Apps offering, strengthening this further with yet more Google branded or co-branded products and services is a classic ‘no brainer’, especially when you remember that they’ve worked together already on Google's Search Appliance and AdWords.

While talk of a merger or a simple Google buyout have been watered down, we’re sure that if the price is right, Benioff would become a “Googler” quicker than you can say ‘supercalafragalisticexpialadocious’.

PC World quoted Benioff who told financial analysts recent that: “We're a catalyst for change. Google, Amazon.com, eBay and Yahoo inspire us. We want to duplicate what they do in the consumer world… [as we continue] building an on-demand operating system. We're just trying to get to a billion dollars in on-demand [software] before anyone else does. We're willing to do anything.”

Clearly, that means teaming up with the enemy of your enemy, who you’ve already worked with before, but now teaming up so closely that soon, SalesForce.com will be just like YouTube – another part of the 21st century’s most dynamic company to date: Google.