Chrome Web Store - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Chrome Web Store is an online store from Google

Google

Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

. It was announced at the Google I/O

Google I/O

Google I/O is an annual two-day developer-focused conference held by Google in San Francisco, California. Google I/O features highly technical, in-depth sessions focused on building web, mobile, and enterprise applications with Google and open web technologies such as Android, Chrome, Chrome OS,...

conference on May 19, 2010 by Vic Gundotra

Vic Gundotra

Vivek "Vic" Gundotra , is Senior Vice-President of Social Business for Google and was previously a general manager at Microsoft.-Career:Gundotra joined Microsoft in 1991 and eventually became General Manager of Platform Evangelism...

and released on December 6, 2010. The software allows users to install and run web applications unique to Google Chrome

Google Chrome

Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google that uses the WebKit layout engine. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008, and the public stable release was on December 11, 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or...

.

The applications, written in the markup language used for the World Wide Web

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...

, HTML

HTML

HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....

, are also able to use code native to the Chrome web browser

Google Native Client

Google Native Client is a sandboxing technology for running a subset of Intel x86 or ARM native code using software-based fault isolation...

starting with Chrome 14. The store hosts free and paid applications. Examples of applications available in the store include the games Plants vs. Zombies
Plants vs. Zombies
Plants vs. Zombies is a tower defense action video game developed and originally published by PopCap Games for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. The game involves a homeowner using many varieties of plants to repel an army of zombies from "eating their brains". It was first released on May 5, 2009,...

and Angry Birds

Angry Birds

Angry Birds is a puzzle video game developed by Finnish computer game developer Rovio Mobile. Inspired primarily by a sketch of stylized wingless birds, the game was first released for Apple's iOS in December 2009...

. The Store has been compared to Apple Inc.'s App Store and Google's Android Market

Android Market

Android Market is an online software store developed by Google for Android OS devices. Its gateway is an application program called "Market", preinstalled on most Android devices, allows users to browse and download mobile apps published by third-party developers...

. A visual and UI overhaul of the store was announced on October 25, 2011.

Criticism

Some commentators have questioned the need for an online app store. Ryan Paul of Ars Technica

Ars Technica

Ars Technica is a technology news and information website created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games. Ars Technica is known for its features, long articles that go...

said on December 9, 2010: "The way that users consume applications in the desktop and mobile world is fundamentally different than they (sic) way that they do it on the Web—where paywalls are often reviled and there is little distinction between content and software. In such an environment, does the application store model make any sense? We are not convinced...Aside from gaming, the idea of an application store in a Web browser—where installation is little more than bookmarking—seems counterintuitive and leaves us with the impression that the entire exercise is a solution in search of a problem."

Sales

TechCrunch

TechCrunch is a web publication that offers technology news and analysis, as well as profiling of startup companies, products, and websites. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, and was first published on June 11, 2005....

reported that sales of paid web apps had by January 2011 sunk, with the best-selling app earning just $165 a week.

Criticism

Sales

Further reading