Google building a store for Web applications

Sundar Pichai, a vice president of product management at Google, demonstrated a new company service today at the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco that he says represents his company’s attempt to solve two of the big problems facing Web developers — discoverability and monetization.

To make that happen, Google seems to have taken a cue from the mobile-app world. It’s developing a store for Web applications, called the Chrome Web Store. Pichai said that once users have set up an account, they will be able to buy Web apps with a single click, and then to rate and review them. Google demonstrated browser-based versions of applications that that are currently downloaded for use on computers and smartphones, but will eventually be available in the Web Store, including Twitter application Tweetdeck and the popular Plants vs. Zombies game.

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It sounds like reach of the Web store will be limited to users of the Chrome Web browser and Chrome OS, Google’s upcoming operating system for netbooks and other devices. While the Web store itself will be limited, the applications won’t be, because they will be based on “standard web technologies,” including HTML5 and Adobe’s Flash, Pichai said.

Pichai didn’t give a timeline of when the Chrome Web Store will be available.