Google is trying to make it easier for Chrome users to install useful extensions without having to double-check their sources. The company says it has started applying the two new badges to the expansion. The first, Featured, looks like a prize ribbon and will be displayed on the extension “Following our technical best practices and meeting high standards of user experience and design.”
Google says it’s a manual process that involves evaluating extensions for a “pleasant and intuitive experience,” ensuring developers use the latest APIs, and paying close attention to each extension’s privacy practices and requested permissions. To get featured tags, extensions must also have a detailed store page that clearly outlines their purpose. Finally, the core functionality of the extension “must be accessible without additional credentials or payment”.
The two new badges are live in the Chrome Web Store today.Image: Google
A second badge will appear on extensions made by established publishers. This publisher with a checkmark design is available to “publishers who have verified their identity and demonstrated compliance with the Developer Program Policies.” But authentication alone is not enough to earn a badge. Google also said that creators of extensions must demonstrate a “consistently positive track record” of their services and no outstanding developer policy violations. This means that brand new extension publishers have to prove themselves first. Google notes that “compliance with these conditions will take at least several months to qualify.”
Companies cannot pay for any of the new badges, but they can nominate existing extensions to receive featured badges. “Our mission has always been to make it easy for users to find great extensions while identifying the publishers who created them,” Google’s Debbie Kim said in a blog post detailing badges today. Tabs are supposed to help people feel better when they click the install button without having to worry about malicious extensions making their way to the Chrome Web Store.
