Browsers are becoming more and more central to how we use computers — a fact that Google is relying on for their upcoming line of Chrome OS netbooks. However, well past just hoping that the functionalities of browsers continues to expand, Google has released a full-fledged app platform and web store for Chrome.
The official opening of the Chrome Web Store, announced at their San Diego conference on the seventh and published to the Google Blog the same day, has been a long time in coming; the “open marketplace for web apps” was handed to developers on May 19th of this year, with preliminary sketches of what the store would look like released on that same date. Not much has changed in the overall structure, and the original ambitions mentioned seem to be coming to fruition.
Every application in the store functions entirely from your browser, with the majority being either cloud or page-based. With a few months of contributions from developers and those who had located viable web-apps, the store already has a fairly good selection. The site also offers an improved way to browse or search through themes and extensions. Additionally, with its grand-opening, the site is expected to see a boom in developer submissions.
The search and browse features are designed to allow shoppers to easily search through applications or browse for web-based apps in specific categories, which range from music to travel to productivity to student apps and more. Chrome has also modified its “new tab” page to make browsing, opening, or installing new apps easier.
Google phone users will notice a lot of similarities between the Chrome Web Store and the Android marketplace. Notably, both have similarly priced applications; many are free, and those with a cost typically come in between one and five dollars.
