Chrome Web Store International Support: Developer Preview

When we recently announced the availability of the Chrome Web Store to Chrome users in the US, we mentioned that we were hard at work making the store available globally. Today we’re excited to announce a preview release of the upload flow for several international markets as a step towards that goal.
Starting today, when you upload an app via the developer dashboard, you’ll have the option of selecting from the following sixteen countries to list your app: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States. If you are using Chrome Web Store Payments to charge for your app, you will also be able to set the app price for each country although if you’re not based in the United States you will not be able to complete your merchant account sign up just yet (this will be enabled soon).
Note that these apps will not yet be published to countries outside the United States. This will happen when the Chrome Web Store opens to consumers in these countries later this year. We are releasing this developer preview ahead of the consumer release so you have enough time to prepare your apps for international users.
We hope you can use this release to get familiar with the app upload process and take time to localize your app listing to make it accessible to more people. If you have additional questions, please take a look at our FAQ or join our developer discussion group.

New Google Earth Imagery

Google has just pushed out another update, and they’ve already pushed it completely out, as this imagery can already be found in Google Maps and in the official updated areas KML file. Thanks to GEB reader ‘Andreas’ for letting us know about it!

japan-imagery.jpg

The updated areas include:

  • Brazil: Many small patches across the country
  • Chile: Various areas
  • India: Mumbai
  • Iran: Various areas
  • Italy: Patches in the northern part of the country
  • Japan: Various northern areas
  • Namibia: Various areas
  • Pakistan: Central area
  • South Africa: Various areas
  • Sudan: Many areas in the southern part of the country
  • Switzerland: Large area just south of Bern
  • United States: Parts of California, Florida, Kentucky and Virginia
  • Zimbabwe: Various areas

A few other areas have been updated as well, but those are the main ones. To see all of the updates, simply load the updated areas KML file and check them out for yourself!

Announcing Google Shopper for iPhone

As we announced last November, millions of people have downloaded Google Shopper for Android to help them shop on the go. Today, we’re excited to let you know that Google Shopper, our popular Android shopping application, is now available for iPhone as a download in the App Store. Google Shopper turns your iPhone into a shopping assistant, so you can:
  • Learn more about products and read relevant user reviews
  • Compare prices at online and local stores
  • Save and share products for later consideration

Let’s say you’re planning a special meal for Valentine’s Day – but you need a cast-iron skillet to get the recipe just right. With Shopper, finding one is easy enough: just type in “cast iron skillet” or say it using Voice Search. Then, from the results, you can choose a specific product that appeals to you. Alternatively, if you were in the store and wanted to see product reviews, you could also scan the barcode of a particular product.

Once you’ve selected a product result, you can compare prices across web retailers, and even find where you can purchase the item nearby, which is especially useful for those of us who are last-minute shoppers. For some retailers, we also provide inventory information so you can see if a particular store branch has the item in stock, has limited availability, or if the item is out of stock and you should head to a different store.

If you’re not sure about making a purchase or are building out a gift list, you can “star” products for future consideration. You can also share items with friends across your social network to let them know about products you love or great deals you’ve found.
You can download Google Shopper for free in the App Store. Shopper is available for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 with iOS 4.0+ in English only for the United States and the UK.
We hope you enjoy shopping with Google Shopper!