Taking its nascent relationship with Google one step closer, Salesforce announced Monday that it has released a toolkit for working with Google's data services APIs (application programming interfaces).

The move is a natural progression from Salesforce's April announcement that it had integrated Google Docs into its CRM (customer relationship management) platform.

The new toolkit lets developers tap Google APIs -- including the ones for its calendar, spreadsheet and word processing applications -- from within Salesforce's Force IDE (integrated development environment) and use the data in new applications. The Force IDE is part of Force.com, Salesforce's hosted "platform as a service" for software development.

On the official Apex developer blog, a Salesforce official said the release represents an emerging trend in Web programming.

"Perhaps the most significant (and technically interesting!) aspect of the toolkit is that unlike the early Web 2.0 mashups that worked primarily by combining services within the browser via JavaScript, this toolkit works by literally connecting the clouds - all of the integration and interaction happens 'in the cloud' rather than on the client," wrote Adam Gross. "This is a new model for mashups, and one we think will become increasingly common."