In the new stable release of its Chrome browser, Google has ramped up the importance of Web apps on the desktop. The New Tab page is now a Web app launcher with big, friendly icons. The new look was added to the beta channel last month. The Chrome Web Store was also renovated. It’s now a “wall of images” that shows app info with one click.
Google recently implemented new technologies in Chrome enabling Web apps to securely execute low-level code in the browser, blurring the line between Web and native apps. Google wants Web apps everywhere, and today’s Chrome release is full of new ways to promote them.
Google has been pushing the Chrome Web Store this year to encourage developers and build a revenue stream. It expanded international support for the store and app marketing, and it launched an API for in-app payments. Today’s overhaul of the store is all about marketing Web apps and making them more appealing.
Google has been steadily dialing up the importance of Web apps in a long succession of Chrome versions. Its recent technological advancements offer a new, Web-based vision of software, and the new store and browser features promote it. It’s not just about the desktop, either; as we observed when today’s features launched in the Chrome beta channel in September, it’s a rather tablet-like interface.
Read more about today’s update on the Chrome blog.
What do you think of Google’s vision of Web apps? Share your thoughts in the comments.
