What’s the best way to have your Web App store hit the ground running when it goes live later this year? Release a preview store for Web developers to experiment with.
While the Chrome Web Store won’t open until later this year, developers can now visit the Chrome Web Store to mock-upload apps and experiment with packaging, installation and integrating payments into them. But you don’t have to worry about putting anything up you don’t want people seeing. These apps will not be visible to other visitors of the gallery during the developer preview. It is simply a great way to test out the process so you’re comfortable with it once the Chrome Web Store goes live. Of course, apps in the Chrome Web store are not Chrome-specific. They can be made available to anyone on any compatible browser.
But, in this same gallery, you can continue to publish Chrome extensions and make them available to Chrome users. Because the new Chrome Web Store will replace the current gallery, and offer a totally new design for users to find great apps, themes and extensions – all in one place.