Google Chrome Add-Ons May Just Have Gotten Safer With This New Measure

Google Chrome is one of the widely used browsers, and one of the reasons for its adoption may be due to the availability of extensions, which can be accessed on the Chrome Web Store. However, as there are around 140,000 extensions available in the pool, users often face the issue of finding good and safe extensions. To solve this issue and aid users in searching for extensions of the highest quality, Google has introduced two new badges – the Featured badge and the Established Publisher badge. The badges are aimed at clearing the clutter and offering superior extensions to Chrome users.

Announcing the launch of these two badges in a blog post, Google also mentioned these are now live on the Chrome Web Store. Interestingly, publishers will not be able to purchase these badges through monetary transactions. Developers need to submit a request for their extension to be reviewed to receive a Featured badge.

The request can be raised on one-stop support page. Interested publishers can read more about badging on Chrome Web Store.

Let us understand the new badges introduced by Google:

Featured badge

Chrome will award Featured badges to extensions that have been manually evaluated by Chrome team members on the basis of a few guidelines. The badge will be given to extensions that have strictly adhered to Chrome Web Store's guidelines, including applying latest platform APIs and respecting users' privacy. Other criteria to obtain the badge include the extensions' store listing pages to have a clear interface for users, featuring quality images and a detailed. Through these mandatory checks, Google aims to respect users' privacy and security while browsing the search engine.

Established Publisher badge

The new badge is extended to verified developers who have adhered to Developer Program Policy. The publisher also needs to present a positive performance history with Google services in order to receive the badge. Developers can get verified here.