Google’s monetary exchange service, temporary sidelined, is poised to make a comeback as the exchange for the Chrome Web Store.
Google’s Chrome project(s) are about getting people to do things on the web in a browser (as opposed to say an app). One of the bigger aspects of this strategy is Google’s intent to create a kind of App Store for Web developers, which allows them to both make some money and promote their products.
That is what the Chrome store is all about. Google’s ChromeOS will leverage the websites in the Chrome Web Store to make a more fulfilling experience (since it is entirely web based). Although you’ll only be able to make purchases in the Chrome browser, the Apps should work in any HTML5-compliant browser.
Here’s a refresher on the Chrome Store from Google I/O earlier this year:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKaJ6jEPXGE&start=208&w=600&h=375]
So how will developers and Google make money on these applications? It appears that Google has implemented their Checkout payment processing system as the only way developers can accept payments from customers.
Starting today, you can sign up for a Google Checkout merchant account via your developer dashboard. If you’re planning to use Chrome Web Store Payments to charge for apps, you’ll need to complete this setup before you can accept payments. If you already have a merchant account with Google Checkout, you’ll be able to associate it with your items in the store. Signing up for Chrome Web Store Payments is currently available to developers based in the US who have a US bank account. We’re working hard to also enable payments for international developers and will update you with a blog post once we have more details. If you have more questions about setting up your merchant account, see this help article we created.
Google Checkout hasn’t really gotten the traction that eBay’s (EBAY) Paypal has generated and questions have been raised whether Google was going to remain dedicated to having a Checkout Service. However, it is a perfect service for collecting funds for small disparate groups of independent developers, so it gets another lease on life. Maybe the Chrome Store can make Checkout accounts more ubiquitous.
Google also announced preview and customization features for developers to the Chrome Web Store:
We also added the ability to see how your app will appear in the store. When you preview an uploaded app, you’ll see our new design of the app’s landing page. As before, your apps are only visible to you during the developer preview until the store launches later this year.
We added several options to help you customize this page with your own header image and a larger icon. You can also upload promotional images for your app now, which will appear as banners whenever your app is featured in the store. To learn more about these new options, we encourage you to read our guidelines about creating good images and icons for apps in the store.
