14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like everyone is launching an app store of some sort these days after the massive success Apple has had with its own App Store for the iPhone. But, judging solely by its launch partners, the Google Apps Marketplace seems to be the real deal. One of those partners is Aviary, not exactly a household name yet, but one that we'll probably start hearing more and more.
Aviary is quickly amassing quite a collection of creative apps, all living in the cloud, mainly focused on graphic design so far. All of the tools are now available for Google Apps users and can be accessed by installing the Aviary App from the new Marketplace. The app is free to install and use, just like the regular web service that also became completely free recently. You will need administrative privileges to install it, but, after that, you're all set to use any of the tools Aviary provides.
The advantages of using Aviary for Google Apps as opposed to just going to the Aviary website are pretty clear when working in a team, which, after all, you must be if you're using Apps. All of the files are saved in the user's Docs account, so they can be shared with colleagues or school buddies. It also helps make the whole 'cloud' experience a bit more cohesive by bringing together different web apps you may be using and storing all the files in the same place, which, in part, is what Marketplace is all about.
The Aviary tools themselves are mostly unchanged from the regular versions, meaning that everything you're used to is still there. Unfortunately, this also means that there's little actual integration with other Google Apps apart from the fact that the saved files are stored in Docs. For example, you can't import an existing file from Google Docs into one of the editors, which is quite a big oversight. Perhaps this will change over time, as the integration gets tighter, but still, even now, the Aviary suite is one third-party app that plenty of Google Apps users will find useful.
