Chrome Web Store Gets Subcategories, But Not For Extensions

When you compare the Chrome Web Store to the Mozilla Add-ons Repository, you will notice that the former offers little sorting and customization options. Up until now you saw a list of recommended apps and extensions on the front page, with options to change the listing to popular items instead of display apps or extensions in one of the broad categories listed on the page.

The store offered no sorting options by release date, rating or update day which makes it a lot harder to find new and exciting extensions and apps in the store.

Another issue was the fact that developers and companies could add their apps to two different categories, so that users would find duplicate listings in the store.

Google today announced a change to the Chrome Web Store that is changing some of the issues for the better. The store now lists apps only in the primary category, and ignores the secondary category listing, which should reduce the number of dupes to zero in the store.

Google furthermore has added subcategories to all primary app categories in the store. The Education category now for instance lists Academic Resources, Family, Foreign Languages and Teacher & Admin Tools as subcategories.

The Business Tools app category has been added along with its four subcategories, and the Shopping category has been moved to become a subcategory of the Lifestyle category.

Google hopes that the new system will improve app discoverability in the store. Google plans to introduce new subcategories once enough apps are available to fill it in the store.

Extensions on the other hand have not received the same treatment. They are still lumped together in 12 categories without any serious sorting or filtering options. The Social & Communication apps listing for instance now includes five subcategories, while the same named extension category none.

Google in my personal opinion should consider adding filtering and sorting options both to extensions and apps listed in the Chrome Web Store. There is simply no reason not to display a list of newly added apps or extensions in the store for instance.

What’s your take on the store?

Chrome Web Store Redesigned

If you have visited the Google Chrome Web Store today you may have noticed that Google redesigned the store completely. The layout of the page has been streamlined into a minimalistic listing of apps, extensions and themes.

The page has three core elements. First the sidebar menu linking to application categories and extensions and themes for the Chrome web browser, then the main area with big thumbnail images and little information about each application, theme or extension and then the search to find specific items in the store.

Some categories use a different display. The family category for instance uses small icons instead of thumbnails so that more applications fit on a single page.

Each application or extension listed is displayed with its name and either a rating or the number of users. It feels rather strange that some applications show ratings while others show the user count instead. When you move the mouse cursor over a thumbnail you will see a short description and a button to add it directly to the Chrome browser.

A click on an application opens the application’s page in an overlay on the same page. the page includes an overview, both ratings and user counts, details, reviews and thumbnails.

Reviews have been moved to their own tab in the overlay so that it takes additional clicks to access those when compared to the previous layout of the Chrome web store.

The listing pages load additional apps and extensions automatically when the user scrolls down, eliminating the need to switch pages manually.

Extensions and themes are the only two categories with sub-listings. It does not seem to be possible anymore to sort the extensions or apps by popularity, last update or other metrics which limits the usability of the listing tremendously. It is for instance no longer possible to identify new extensions in the store.

The new Chrome Web Store layout and design looks as if it was optimized for touch based devices. You find big thumbnail images in most categories that are easy to tap on. Desktop users will miss sorting options as well as options to change the display of the listings.

Have you been to the new Chrome Web Store yet? If so, what do you think of it? (thanks Vineeth)

---

© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
Add to del.icio.us, digg, facebook, reddit, twitter
Post tags: chrome apps, chrome extensions, chrome web store, Google, google chrome