Well, after all the rumours about Google taking over Salesforce, which to me was smartly instrumented by the willing "acquiree" (and certainly not by the unwilling acquirer), the reality... well... fell short off the clift!

The announcement today at the Google/Salesforce gourmet luncheon, at fancy Palace Hotel in San Francisco, was simply an extension of Salesforce's existing Google AdWords service launched last August, after it acquired Kieden, the tiny start-up behind the idea.

What's "really" News... not the killer app!
So here's the run down by Kraig Swensrud, Kieden's founder, and now senior director of search marketing at Salesforce, on what really bring this "strategic alliance" between these two online companies.

"We took the guts of the Kieden technology and then we sat down with Google and said how do we need apply this technology to this small business audience".

The result was the new Salesforce Group edition that contains four features that we didn't offer before:

- the ability to advertise online;

- to capture leads on your website;

- to manage leads/prospects within Salesforce which was never possible before for a small business audience;

- and the dashboard which let users visually see what's happening: Am I generating leads? How many? Where are they coming from? Are they turning into opportunities? Are they buying from me? How long are they taking to buy? Is this thing working?

Last but certainly not least for whom it may concern, the Salesforce Group Edition with Google AdWords is free for all non-profit organisations. Touché!