Fire Up Your Computer: The 2012 Google Apps Developer Challenge is Here!

 In 2011, Google collaborated with local developers by executing various Google conferences and Hackathons, showcasing creative applications, and supporting Tech Hubs. For this year’s challenge, the Internet giant will focus on Google Apps Script, Google Apps and Google Drive APIs.

The Google Apps Developer Challenge is a global competition for developers across the globe to find novel and innovative methods to utilize Apps Script, Apps and Drive APIs to build cool apps. This challenge is particularly unique as the APIs are available to a large community of developers who code in a variety of languages that include Java, PHP, Python, and .Net.

Google’s latest challenge requires participants to have an adequate understanding of the various Google Apps and Drive APIs. If you are not familiar, make sure to read up about Google Apps Script, Google Apps and Drive APIs on Google Developers. Google advises participants to refer to the Chrome Web Store as a source of inspiration.

The challenge: Create an innovative application using Google Apps Script, Google Apps, and Drive APIs. If your application is the best within one of the three categories defined below in your region, you could win a prize of US$20,000! Google is also committed to nurturing the next generation of computer scientists as well as encouraging more women to get into coding, so we have special prizes for all-student or all-female teams that make the second round — US$1,000.

The first round of submissions will start on the 24th August 2012. The categories are:

• Enterprise / Small Business Solutions e.g., Accounting, Sales, Workflow, Collaboration
• Social / Personal Productivity / Games / Fun
• Education / Not for Profit / Water / Food & Hunger / Health

Do make sure you read all the details about the competition on the Google Apps Developer Challenge page and follow the hashtag #gappschallenge on Google+ for any additional updates.