We strive to make it easy for users to discover great items on the Chrome Web Store. A positive discovery experience means making it simple for users to find the items they know and love, as well as new and undiscovered items. From browsing the home page to searching by title, we want users to find the best item to fit their needs.
Items in the store are ranked or featured in order to make it easier for users to find high quality content. Ranking is performed by a heuristic that takes into account ratings from users as well as usage statistics, such as the number of downloads vs. uninstalls over time.
Other factors include the following:
- The design is pleasant to the eye.
- The item provides a clear purpose and fills a real user need.
- The setup and onboarding flow are intuitive.
- The item is easy to use.
Learn more about discovery on the Chrome Web Store below.
Search
Chrome Web Store search is a key tool for helping users find relevant and popular items. When users search for an item, search returns a list of items that are ranked based on a number of criteria, including metadata from your item's listing page. Making sure that your store listing page is complete, accurate, and optimized is important to ensuring your item is discoverable through search. Learn more about crafting a great listing page.
Featured items and collections
The Chrome Web Store team occasionally selects interesting listings as "Featured" listings. We're not accepting requests to be featured at this point, since that would quickly become unmanageable. Here are a few tips to increase the likelihood that we'll feature your listing:
- Write a great piece of software
- Make sure your listing looks really nice (nice icon, good descriptions, crisp screenshots and/or videos)
- Promote your listing independently so that it starts to rise in the rankings
The collections are curated, and are not intended to be comprehensive. A collection is curated using the ranking criteria already listed and may be selected to provide helpful results for certain circumstantial situations, such as work-from-home extensions. Solicitations to be placed in a collection are not accepted.
Categories
Categories on the Chrome Web Store organize items based on their main function. Users can browse categories such as Shopping, Education, or Just for Fun, to find relevant items to install. To assign a category, open an item in the Developer Dashboard. You'll find the Category list on the Store Listing tab under Product Details.
In mid 2023 the categories changed. For information on choosing a new category, see best practices.
Extensions home page
The home page is where we highlight great extensions and themes that we think users will love. Users come to this page to find new and interesting items recommended by our editors. Chrome editors curate items to be featured in merchandised collections and the rotating marquee based on a variety of factors including performance, design, usefulness, relevancy and breadth of appeal. Items featured on the home page must follow our general best practices to be considered, but there is no set checklist developers can follow to guarantee being featured. Developers cannot pay to be featured on the home page. The best thing a developer can do to increase their chances of being featured on the home page is to build a useful, high-quality extension that is a joy to use.
Editors' Picks
Chrome editors hand pick items to be featured as Editors' Picks to inspire users and recognize exceptional extensions. Editors' Picks are featured in the Editors' Picks collection on the home page. We look for high-quality items that offer consistent, best-in-class experiences to users. Like the home page, items chosen for Editors' Picks must follow our general best practices to be considered, but there is no set checklist of requirements to guarantee being featured. Developers cannot pay to be featured as an Editors' Pick.
Item badges
Badges on Chrome Web Store are visible to users as they browse the store, and offer an added signal of quality and trust on vetted items. Developers who earn these badges may receive higher rankings in search and filtering, and might also see their extensions appear in special promotions both on and off Chrome Web Store. Learn more about badges below.
Featured badge
The Featured badge is assigned to extensions that follow our technical best practices and meet a high standard of user experience and design. Chrome team members manually evaluate each extension before it receives the badge, paying special attention to the following:
- Adherence to Chrome Web Store’s best practices, including providing an enjoyable and intuitive experience, using the latest platform APIs and respecting the privacy of users.
- A store listing page that is clear and helpful for users, with quality images and a detailed description.
Established Publisher badge
The Established Publisher badge showcases developers who have verified their identity and demonstrated compliance with the developer program policies. This badge is granted automatically to publishers who meet the following two conditions:
- The publisher's identity has been verified.
- The publisher has established a consistent positive track record with Google services and compliance with the Developer Program Policy.
Any extensions built by a developer who follows the Chrome Web Store Developer Program Policies and does not have any unresolved violations will be considered. For new developers, it will take at least a few months of respecting these conditions to qualify. Today, this represents nearly 75 percent of all extensions in the Chrome Web Store and we expect this number to keep growing.
Note that developers cannot pay to receive either badge, but we aim to provide other ways to request consideration. The One Stop Support page is trialing an option that allows developers to nominate extensions for the Featured badge. To successfully nominate your extension to receive the Featured badge, the following additional criteria must be met:
- Your item must be an extension.
- You must own the extension you are nominating.
- Your extension should have English language support.
- Your extension must be published and public.
- Your extension must not have any active policy violations.
- Your extension’s core features must be accessible without additional credentials or payments.