Google, Salesforce.com to partner on Web site
Salesforce.com and Google are expected to launch a combined Web site on Tuesday that is designed to allow the online customer relationship management software maker to act as a reseller for Google's AdWords.
For Salesforce.com, the alliance expands its efforts to tie its hosted CRM software with Google AdWords, following its acquisition of privately held Kieden last year. Salesforce.com will expand beyond allowing its customers to launch Google AdWords from a Salesforce.com application to one in which it will act as a reseller of the Google AdWords platform.
The two companies jointly developed Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords and plan to jointly market the offering, said Kendall Collins, senior vice president of marketing for Salesforce.com.
Salesforce Group Edition is designed to allow companies to connect to Google AdWords and have their advertisement displayed on Google.com when related search terms are entered on the site, as well as distribute their ads on Google AdSense.
When potential customers click on the advertisement, they are taken to the company's Web site. Potential customers are then encouraged to fill out a form that records their name, and this information is transmitted to a company's sales team, as a potential sales lead via Salesforce's technology.
"This alliance was a natural fit for us," said Collins, noting that the two companies are similar in the way they approach delivering services over the Internet, such as leveraging open application program interfaces (APIs).
The Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords will target mid-size to small companies and cost $1,200 per year for five users, after the 30-day promotional price of $600 for five users for the first year expires. That promotional price includes a $50 per year Google AdWords credit.
As part of the nonexclusive deal, Salesforce will receive all proceeds from the sale of its Salesforce Group Edition and share a nominal portion of any Google AdWords sales, Collins said. The remainder of the proceeds from Google AdWords will go to Google.
While the joint-development efforts between the companies has produced one product, Sean Whiteley, director of Salesforce's search marketing, said its customers will drive future development plans.
"We're hoping that as people use these products, it will become evident what we should do next," Whiteley said.
Dawn Kawamoto covers enterprise security and financial news relating to technology for CNET News. E-mail Dawn. 
The limited benefits of the Adwords integration into salesforce only consists in offering an interface gathering already available existing services. The value added here is far from being exceptional!
I have been personally using Google Adwords and Salesforce for a long time now and this new partnership won?t allow me to do more than what I?ve been able to do for far! Most of companies have been able to integrate and track leads generated by Adwords and at the same time optimize their bids. Furthermore the web-to-lead form function was already there before the alliance exists. FormVester, a free application for Salesforce (available at the AppEchange directory) for example has been able to capture data from any online forms and generate them as new leads directly into Salesforce long time before the alliance was done!
So yes, nothing really new here and the entire marketing buzz around this partnership announcement may appear a bit disappointing.
However, I?m convinced that the real effects of this partnership will take its entire dimension on the next following month/years. It is obvious that both of the companies would benefit from this partnership, especially if they want to be serious competitors of Microsoft, but they need to deliver more valuable services to both Salesforce and Google users