The Chrome app store is now open for users of Google's Chrome web browser.
Upon landing at the app store, you are greeted by a somewhat familiar storefront containing categories and small icons that represent various applications that can be installed for google chrome.
I grabbed the New York Times app and browsed through it. It seems to offer a somewhat slimmed down version of the site. Not unlike a magazine that you are holding in front of your monitor.
Next, I got the NPR app and browsed through it. It also offers a somewhat streamlined experience that collects all of the major news in a visual display that is easy to browse.
Getting to the app store after you install it though is somewhat confusing, since google doesn't offer a "button" in chrome to easily access it.
You can either visit the store where you will see apps that you can install, or open a new tab and you will see an icon that takes you to the app store from within your browser.
The only way to access your apps that I can see is by opening a new tab or window and clicking on the app's icon.
These apps appear to be modified .html documents that have been slimmed down for chrome parsing.
The NPR app has some hidden apple code and may have just been an ipad or iphone web app that was added to the chrome store:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html manifest="app.manifest">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=8,chrome=1" />
<meta http-equiv="Content-Script-Type" content="text/javascript" />
<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes" />
<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style" content="default" />
<meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1.0, minimum-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no, width=device-width, target-densityDpi=device-dpi" />
<meta name="google-site-verification" content="Fh8hJ5kenyl4ArPY-vc_6Jz23afX0d-kX18IgavMArI" />
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/static/sc_npr/en/ba31f545c7cf6664914d6702b2e8470efeec17ee/resources/sproutcore-logo.png" /> The above source shows a lot of apple specific markup!
The New York Times App is a bit slimmer and seems to be custom made for the Chrome Web Store:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en" manifest="manifest/skimmer.manifest">
<head>
<title>The New York Times</title>
<meta name="TimesPeople" content="disallow" />
<meta name="WT.z_dcsm" content="1" />
<meta name="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=8" />
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="chrome=1">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, maximum-scale=1.0" />
<link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/webapps/skimmer/2.0/images/skmr_256.png"/>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/webapps/skimmer/2.0/build/app.css">
<style type="text/css" id="schemeStyles"></style>
<style type="text/css" id="sizeStyles"></style>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://use.typekit.com/mzn2eod.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">try{Typekit.load();}catch(e){}</script>
I will be curious as to how these apps will eventually integrate with Google's own operating system, Chrome OS.
This description from the Google Labs page offers a little insight into what Chrome Apps are:
What are installable web apps?
Installable web apps are a way of making Google Chrome treat certain websites like apps. People can find installable web apps using the Chrome Web Store.
Many installable web apps are hosted apps—normal websites with a bit of extra metadata. You can build and deploy hosted apps exactly as you would build and deploy any web app, using any server-side or client-side technologies you like. The only difference is that you must provide a small manifest file that describes the app.
If you want your app to work especially well offline or to be tightly integrated with the Google Chrome browser, you can create a packaged app. A packaged app is just a web app that the user downloads. Packaged apps have the option of using the Google Chrome Extension APIs, allowing packaged apps to change the way Chrome behaves or looks.
What do you think? Does the store offer promise or is it another gimmick?
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