Chrome Web Store Now With In-App Purchases

Coming soon to a desktop near you?

More news out of Google's I/O conference... the Chrome web store  (now featuring Angry Birds, BTW) has implemented in-app purchasing. The Chrome store is now available worldwide, too. Interestingly, in-app purchases are only charged a 5% fee by Google. Google also notes that in-app purchasing can be added to your app with one line of code. Impressively simple.

I'm going to stand out of the way now of game developers rushing to take advantage of these terms... hey, if you've got something that works in a browser, why wouldn't you try putting it into the Chrome store?

Adding to the appeal, Google is announcing some new Chrome laptops from Samsung and Acer, along with an interesting sales pitch: No money down, just get your Chrome laptop for $28 a month (if you're a business) or $20 a month (if you're a student). And these laptops come with Wi-Fi, and there's a 3G option, too. Interesting... I'm not sure if people will want to live in their browser all the time, or if this hardware will take off. But it's another reason to consider a browser-based version of your game, certainly. Oh, and you get Netflix and Hulu, too.

One more interesting thing: Google showed a desktop Chrome box from Samsung, too, called the Chromebox. No details... but lots of speculation. Set-top box? Competition for Google TV? Or just a way to do a Mac Mini at half the price?