The rumors are true. I have it from two reliable sources that Salesforce.com is indeed announcing an integration with Google Apps at a news conference in San Francisco on Monday, Apri 14. What I am not sure about at this point is whether the integration is at the applications level with, say, a tab in Saleforce.com's CRM applications so users can access Google Apps directly, or at the platform level so developers can natively build Google Apps functionality into applications developed on Salesforce's Force.com development platform. Or both.

Both makes more sense to me. Salesforce, of course, declined by e-mail a request for comment.

The bottom line, according to one source close to the company, is that the deal is a way to fend off competition from Microsoft as it looks to stay current with its efforts to modernize its applications -- particularly around on-demand collaboration and productivity tools, Google Apps' sweet spot.

For developers, the integration of Salesforce and Google Apps is a good thing, according to Alex Sutherland, senior project manager at CRM Manager.

"I am especially interested in [the Salesforce] integration with Google Apps e-mail," Sutherland said. "I really hate Outlook and Microsoft apps. I own a couple of the Google integration ideas on Idea Exchange and I am very, very anxious to see that happen -- immediately, for my own purposes, but for the market, in the long run. Trying to integrate with Microsoft products is really, really frustrating."

The purpose of the integration between Salesforce and Google -- the two companies have been partners for some time, with Salesforce listed as a partner on the Google Apps home page -- is twofold, according to sources. It lets Salesforce capitalize on the growing number of people getting comfortable with Google Apps, and adds functionality through collaboration and productivity tools that will enhance Salesforce applications. And for Google, it will move Google Apps as a tools base with a set of business applications not only around CRM but also the related applications developed on Force.com

Some industry watchers aren't as thrilled with the Google Apps integration news coming from Salesforce. Joshua Greenbaum, responding to rumors swirling around Salesforce's "big announcement" next week, wrote in his Enterprise Anti-matter blog that the deal is, well, no big deal.

"I'm ... stifling a yawn because I don't think that Google Apps are going to make much difference in the Salesforce.com world: As I [have] written more than once, Google's terms of service severely hamper the usability of its Apps in the real world of corporate computing, and as such it would seem to me unlikely that a Google+Salesforce deal would either make any significant inroads into CRM user productivity or make an appreciable dent in Microsoft Office's position in the Salesforce.com customer base."

Even as a platform play, the integration between Salesforce and Google Apps could well do little in the short term to build on Salesforce's goal of morphing into an on-demand platform company -- particularly for enterprise customers.

"I think the overriding message with all this stuff is that Salesforce is being relentless about staying on this platform path. I've worked with them for several years and it's pretty safe to say that Marc Benioff is not going to be satisfied as a CEO until he can be considered as a platform company," said Eric Berridge, co-founder of Bluewolf, an on-demand services company with close ties to Salesforce. "[But] if you're looking for companies that will run everything on Force.com, those were small. If I were starting a company today, I would look long and hard at putting everything on Force.com."

Berridge said the Google Apps integration announcement will have a lot of play for small businesses. "Larger enterprises are still interested in what Google is doing and they would love to figure out a way to give Microsoft less power. But the organizations we're talking to, to move off of Office, it's less of an impact" for small businesses, he said.

What do you think? Is an integration between Salesforce.com and Google Apps a big deal or, as Josh said, a big yawn?