Google has revealed that its Google Chrome Web Store will be released in Europe this autumn, a timing which coincides with the launch of Google Chrome OS.
The store will play host to a multitude of web apps which, once downloaded, will be made into shortcuts on your Chrome browser.
The store will also house games so it is no surprise that Mark DeLoura, formerly of Ubisoft and now all things gaming at Google, is at this year's European Games Developers' Conference in Europe plugging the store.
Google games
"When Chrome updates this Fall, everyone who has Chrome will suddenly have access to the store - it'll be in a prominent position," said DeLoura about the launch.
When speaking about the gaming side he did hint that it may not be the only dip into gaming Google was considering.
"Google Chrome web store is our big push right now when it comes to gaming, but there are a lot of things going on inside of Google right now, especially related to games, and when things get to the point where we can talk about them, I'll be the one jumping up and down," he explained.
Polishing Chrome
A key part of Chrome OS will be the application store and the Chrome browser. Currently 70 million people use Chrome and Google will be hoping to monetise this amount of traffic with premium applications.
At launch, the store will only take payment in US dollars. While annoying, this is something which Android users had to put up with using Market and it hasn't put them off purchasing.
When it comes to games, Edge magazine is reporting that there will be no approval process, but devs will have to look after their own source code.
Games will come in the form of trials, subscriptions and there will also be a load of free games – all of which will support Google's one-click checkout system.
Via Edge
Your comments (6) Click to add a new comment
bradavon
August 18th 2010
6. It is a strange one because whilst I prefer Firefox and Chrome, I do agree it's very good. Firefox was built on word of mouth, this never happened with Opera (not to the same numbers anyway). I think they've partially got themselves to blame, Mozilla did the right thing back in the day by making Firefox not look too dissimilar to Internet Explorer. Opera never did that and it alienated people (myself included back then). Love it or hate it but IE is how a hell of a lot of people come to the web for the first time.
Mozilla Firefox also came into existence because Microsoft weren't doing anything with IE and it felt fresh. Opera obviously being as old as IE didn't. Firefox is in threat though, it's numbers aren't really going down but they're not rising either. Opera maybe rising but it's only in real world terms by small numbers. It's Chrome which is seeing the big increase in users.
It's still weird they struggle to even get 5% of web users though, after 15 years of trying. It's not because the product is poor. They should sign deals with search engines or maybe some billboards. Both have helped Chrome greatly.
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windymiller
August 18th 2010
5. @ si smith.
Yeah, we know you don't work for them, your not that bright. Personally, I think the user base "does" reflect how good,,,sorry, bad it is.
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si_smith
August 18th 2010
4. I don't work for Opera, but it annoys me when the best products don't have decent marketshare.
Opera is by far and away the best, fastest and most complete browser on the market, yet it's userbase does not reflect that.
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bradavon
August 17th 2010
3. 100 million users in 14 years for Opera or 70 million in just under 2 years for Chrome. Suddenly that 100 million doesn't look so good, does it. A number which will just rise when Chrome OS launches. I'd never rely on the companies own stats too, they're usually biased. The numbers don't add up when Chrome percentage wise is higher than Opera, in number of users.
Anyway thanks for taking it off topic (do you work for Opera?), this is exciting news for computing. Competition is a good thing. USD doesn't bother me, we live in an international world. My bank is very capable of converting it to GBP for me.
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lovlid
August 17th 2010
2. But it doesn't make them as dull as opera users.
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si_smith
August 17th 2010
1. "Currently 70 million people use Chrome"...
Interesting, as Opera has over 100m users....
http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2010/04/12/
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