Google readies international opening of Chrome Web Store

WEB BROWSER DEVELOPER Google is readying its Chrome Web Store for users outside the US, allowing Brits among others access to Chrome applications.

Google recently launched its Chrome Web Store for users in the US, or rather users who had their Google Account language settings set to 'English (US)'. Now less than two weeks later it has started to allow developers to choose whether their applications will be sold in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom.

The delay in launching Google's Chrome Web Store in non-US regions seems to have been to do with payment facilities. Google announced that developers will be able to select which regions they would like their applications to be sold in, though stores in those countries will open later in the year.

Google's reason for the pre-release is to allow developers to have enough time to prepare their applications for international users. This shows Google's intentions to launch a massive rollout of its Chrome store sooner rather than later and is likely to attract more international developers to its Chrome Store.

Chrome users who want to download applications can do so by simply setting the language to 'English (US)' on their accounts.

The announcement that developers can start filling the Chrome store with regionalised applications serves as notice that Google is not far from opening the doors to punters all over the globe. µ