Google opens Chrome Web Store to developers

Google is offering a developer preview of its Chrome Web Store for applications pitched at the firm's operating system.

Developers can start uploading applications now, and a fuller version will be added later on, the firm said.

The preview offers documentation on creating applications, as well as licensing and user-authentication tools.

"Since our announcement of the Chrome Web Store at Google I/O, our team has been hard at work preparing for our launch later this year," said Michael Noth, a software engineer at Google, in a blog post.

"Today we're making the first step towards this milestone by making available a developer preview of the Chrome Web Store."

Arne Rooman-Kurrik, a developer advocate at Google, said in a video released to accompany the announcement that applications should be of high quality and provide a rich user experience.

Google's Gmail and Docs services are good examples of web sites that function as web applications, according to Rooman-Kurrik, and developers should not simply try to port over sites, but to make them "mobile apps".

The company has also suggested that installation processes should be common to cut down on "install fatigue", and that developers that follow the guidelines will create applications with a specific "install flow for permissions".

Google will take a five per cent cut of any sales, according to reports.