Today, Oct 25th 2011, Google has launched a new redesigned version of the Chrome Web Store. This is only available for Chrome Browser, so you can access from your Chrome laptop. This means that you won’t appreciate this new version from other web browsers. Apart from looking much cleaner than the old platform, it looks nicer and has a more professional approach too. It will be easier for you to find what you need with your Chromebook because of its new layout. The old Chrome Web Store was organized by Apps, Extensions and Themes, now you have all the Chromebook Apps right on the screen and ready to be installed in just one click.
Wait a minute, don’t you know what the Chrome Web Store is?
This is an online platform created by Google in which you can find thousands of applications, games, extensions and themes for your Chrome Laptop (or simply for your regular computer with a Google Chrome Browser installed). Of course all of the apps you can find here, will be web based applications as the Chrome Web Store is oriented to the new era of computing, cloud computing.
Let’s take a look at the new features of the renewed Chrome Web Store
New Main Screen
First of all, when you visit the new Chrome Web Store you will see the home and the featured apps displayed in a bigger format then the old one. The new app window includes a logo or a picture of the app, the title, user reviews (indicated by 5 stars) and when you mouse-over the window it will show a brief description of the app and will give you the opportunity to download the application directly from that screen with one click on the ‘+ Add to Chrome’ button. So we can say that it takes much less time to download new apps with the new Chrome Web Store format.
New Sidebar Organization
The main difference between the old and new version of Chrome Web Store is that you won’t have the Apps, Extensions, Themes and Collections as the 4 main Menus.
Now, we can see Popular and Collections as the first two available menus below the Search bar. If you click on Collections you will be displayed with sub-categories such as; Art & Design, Books, Business Tools, etc. Right below, you will have direct access to the Applications categories like Education, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Extensions, Themes. We can see that Extensions and Themes are now part of the App’s categories.
Application Window
The App Window will appear when you click on an application and this will show you all the details of the program. You will have 3 different tabs (Overview, Details and Review) and the Download button on the top-right corner of the screen.
- Overview – It displays pictures and/or videos of the application as well as a brief description on the right side.
- Details – You can see the full description of the application and you will have detailed information such as; the app version, language, last update, etc.
- Reviews – You can rate the web based applications as well as check the user reviews, feedback and opinions.
Remember that you can go back to the Home Screen of the Chrome Web Store pressing ‘Esc’.
Final Conclusion
We believe that this new version of the Chrome Web Store is way better than the old one and that Chromebook users will love it. On the other hand we think that Google will motivate more people to install its Chrome Browser to use all the web based applications as well as have the benefits Chrome provides.
What do you think of this new version of Chrome Web Store? Did we forget any features you’d like mentioned? We’d love to hear your oppinion.
