

Using Chrome Web Store for App Distribution (by the numbers) - webb
http://tech.dayzipping.com/chrome-web-store-a-case-study

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benologist
We've had pretty mixed results so far. There's some real problems with the
Chrome Web Store, most notably that it's really hard to find new apps - in our
industry (games) all of our users are very late to the party so the only way
to find their stuff is if it's featured or in a search result.

But Google's been really receptive to our feedback so hopefully it'll improve
in time for ChromeOS.

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dpcan
YES! You cannot BROWSE GAMES! This is a massive oversight in the Google Chrome
Web Store.

I go there a couple times a week - NOT to download something new (because that
would be a waste of time give the way the store works right now) but to see if
it's possible yet to browse through games, game categories, or sub-categories.

I just want to look around, find something good.

I don't know WHAT to search for when I want a game. The featured games are
usually nothing I would be interested in either. When I want to find a game, I
look by category, see if something appeals to me, check out screen shots,
download.

It's super sad. Really really really sad that I cannot browse game categories.

This is ALSO the reason I have not ventured into porting any of my games to
Chrome Web Store. What's the point? If they can't find me browsing, the
likelihood of my games being found by search is next to none.

P.S. This is also what is VERY wrong with the Android Market. There are just a
few game categories. I've exhausted my browsing in these categories now and
it's frustrating. There must be more categories in the Android Market for
games as well.

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Spines11
It seems like you don't have to write any extra code to become a Chrome Web
Store app. "Installing" the DayZipping app just puts an icon on your home page
that is a link to dayzipping.com.

This seems like a good way to get some free traffic to your web app.

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wccrawford
And by 'app distribution' they mean 'a link to a website'. -sigh-

Google asked for this, so I can't blame the companies that take advantage of
it, but I really wish Chrome apps were just apps that installed in the browser
instead. Offline-able preferred.

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stanleydrew
What do you mean by "apps that installed in the browser instead"? Instead of
what? Instead of being web-apps?

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wccrawford
There are 2 ways to publish on the chrome web store.

1) A link to a website, with the link hidden. Going to the actual website
provides the exact same experience.

2) A packaged app that is downloaded and contained within the browser. (It may
or may not use a web API for some functionality.)

#1 is basically just a bookmark. There's nothing special about it.

~~~
jent
In my mind, there isn't much difference technically the big question is
whether users want a different experience. A certain percentage want a more
fluid user flow similar to a native / desktop app. This web app seems to
accomplish that using Google web toolkit and decent page load times.

