New Chrome Web Store badges make discovering safe and helpful extensions a lot easier
There’s no shortage of reasons to stick with Chrome as your main browser these days, but one of its biggest strengths comes in the form of extensions. With countless apps and add-ons at your disposal, tweaking and enhancing your online experience can be done with just a few clicks of your mouse. Finding useful ones can be challenging, though, especially if you don’t have a specific use case in mind. With its latest update, Google is working to makediscovering the best extensionson the Chrome Web Store a little easier.
The company announcedtwo new extension badgescoming to the Web Store today. The first is a Featured badge, which extends a special marker to any add-on that meets Google’s user experience and design standards. These aren’t just randomly assigned — each extension is tested and evaluated by official Chrome team members, ensuring it follows a list of best practices and keeps a well-maintained store page.
In theory, Featured extensions will draw more eyes, with users likely to trust and discover new extensions without worrying about safety, privacy, or issues with sluggish performance. The badge is listed under each add-on’s name, with a “Learn More” link appearing if you hover over the icon.
The second announcement, Established Publisher badges, applies directly to developers and not just single extensions. This award promotes development teams that have not only verified their identity with Google, but are also following the Developer Program Policy and have maintained a “positive track record with Google services.”
Anyone who makes extensions can apply for the Featured badge starting today. Head to the My Item page and select “I want to nominate my extension” to reach adedicated support page. While this isn’t the same as Chrome’s “Editors' Picks” page, it should allow a ton of lesser-known add-ons to get some additional space in the spotlight.
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