Chrome users are constantly scrutinizing the authenticity of a new extension when it becomes available in the Chrome Web store. Hence, Google has started rolling out two new badges for Chrome extensions to overcome that. The first is known as Featured, and the second badge for extensions made by Established Publishers.
Featured badge
The Featured badge looks like a prize ribbon. It will display extensions that “follow Google’s technical best practices and meet a high user experience and design standard.” Moreover, the company says that it is a manual process involving the evaluation of extensions for an “enjoyable and intuitive experience.” Additionally, Google wants to ensure developers use the latest APIs and maintain each extension’s privacy practices and requested permissions.
Furthermore, extensions should possess a detailed store page outlining their purpose to receive a Featured badge. Also, the extension’s fundamental features “must be accessible without additional credentials or payments.”
Established Publishers badge
The extensions by Established Publishers will receive the second label by Google in the Chrome Web store. It showcases a checkmark design and is for verified publishers. Hence, the publishers must possess a verified identity and “demonstrated compliance with the developer program policies.” However, verifying identity is not enough to earn the Established Publishers badge. Google states that extension creators should have “a consistently positive track record” with its services. Also, they should not have any remaining developer policy violations. Additionally, Google remarked that it “will take a few months of respecting these conditions to qualify.” Thus, it will be difficult for new publishers to obtain this label for their extensions.
Most importantly, companies or publishers would not be able to purchase any of the two badges. But, they can nominate an existing extension to receive a Featured labeled one. Debbie Kim from Google noted in a blog post about the Chrome extension badges that Google always aims for user-friendliness. She stated, “It has always been our mission to make it easy for users to find great extensions while recognizing the publishers who create them.”
