Is the Google Chrome Webstore a Better Way to Find Web Apps?

At the first day of Google I/O, Google announced quite a few new features for developers, but also managed to show a few that affect the rest of us.  The biggest announcement is a better way to find the web apps that Google has been pushing as part of the HTML5 push.

The announcement comes in the form of the Chrome Web Store.  The Chrome Web Store looks to be exclusive to Chrome, Google’s own browser, though that isn’t exactly clear.  The store will be familiar to anyone with a smartphone with an app store of any sort.  Apps are broken down into categories like games and social media.  Web apps will be both free and paid. {TechCrunch}

The explanation for the Chrome Web Store is that web apps are tough to find, and Google will bring them together, making them easy to find.  It will also make apps easier to get to once you select them.  The apps will be able to be shown on new tabs within Chrome, making it easy to get to any web app you chose through the Chrome Web Store.

At the Google I/O keynote, Google showed a variety of web apps that will be available.  For games they showed the popular Pop Cap game Plants vs. Zombies as a Flash-based web app (we can attest to the addictive nature of that one).  A 3D game, Lego Star Wars was also shown running smoothly straight through a web browser.  The most interesting app, however, was the Sport Illustrated web app.  SI showed off a fully online, interactive version of the latest issue, showing embedded video, interactive ads, and sharing via social media services.  The issue looked similar to some of the iPad examples we’ve seen from magazines like Wired {Wired}, but will run on many more platforms.

The web apps on the Chrome Web Store, when it launches, will run on most any device.  Many will be written in HTML5, meaning they’ll run on all “modern” browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari) and mobiles devices including Android phones, and iPhone devices (iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad).  However, some like Plants vs. Zombies will be written in Flash, meaning they will not run on iPhone devices and older Android phones.