Chrome Web Store Gets Trending, Offline Filters

As a webmaster who is always looking for the latest and greatest, I have to admit that I dislike the Chrome web store. The core reason for this is that it does not allow me to sort by new extensions, or updated extensions. When you open it, you always see the same old extensions and apps at the top, with little room for changing what is displayed on the page. While it is possible to sort by popular, recommended and rating, it does not change the fact that you won't see a lot of new extensions at the top of those pages.

Mozilla in this regard handles that better over at the add-ons page, as you can easily sort by new and updated extensions there. While I have the feeling that this may change in the future, I hope it is not the case.

Back to the Chrome web store. Google today announced that the company has added two new options to the store that improve app and extension discovery.

Trending

The trending filter, prominently displayed in the store's sidebar listing and sort menu, displays top trending apps and extensions. Google mixes apps and extensions on the page if you click on the Trending link in the sidebar. If you only want extensions, click on extensions first, and use the Sort by pulldown menu to filter by trending. This way, you only get extensions and not apps listed. You can naturally reverse that and only display trending apps instead.

Trending aps and extensions receive a "hotness" rating, ranging from on fire over hot to warm. These ratings are displayed on the overview pages as you can see in the screenshot above.

Offline

If you have eagle-eyes, you may have spotted the lightning icon underneath the Download Master extension listing. This indicates offline capabilities of extensions and apps. When you see it listed, it means that you can use the extension or app without Internet connection.

Google furthermore has added a filter to the web store that filters by offline capabilities. Visit this link to only display extensions and apps that can be used offline. Here it is unfortunately not possible to filter exclusively by extension or apps.

Closing Words

Especially trending can be interesting for Chrome users who would like to stay in the loop when it comes to hot new extensions and apps for the browser. While that is still not what I'm personally looking for, it is a step in the right direction. (via Caschy via Chrome blog)

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