^ 'Ad Injection at Scale: Assessing Deceptive Advertisement Modifications' (PDF).'Google Removes Two Chrome Extensions Amid Ad Uproar'. 'Adware Vendors Buy and Abuse Chrome Extensions'. ^ 'Adware vendors buy Chrome Extensions to send ad- and malware-filled updates'.'The Lowdown: Google I/O 2012 Day 2 – 310M Chrome Users, 425M Gmail & More'. 'New The Chrome Web Store Proves To Be A Boon For Developers Above (And Below) The Fold'. ^ Kay, Erik Boodman, Aaron (February 3, 2011).'Sales Are At A Trickle On Google's The Chrome Web Store'. ^ 'Breaking Down The Chrome Web Store'.But this became a malware vector, so it was removed in 2018. Ĭhrome used to allow extensions hosted on Chrome Web Store to also be installed at the developer's website for the sake of convenience. In February 2021, Google blocked 'The Great Suspender', a popular extension with 2,000,000 users after it was reported that malicious code was added to it. In January 2018, security researchers found four malicious extensions with more than 500,000 combined downloads. Malware remains a problem on Chrome Web Store. The following year, Google acknowledged that about five percent of visits to its own websites had been altered by extensions with adware. In 2014, Google removed two such extensions from Chrome Web Store after many users complained about unwanted pop-up ads. Some extension developers have sold their extensions to third-parties who then incorporated adware. As of June 2012, there were 750 million total installs of content hosted on Chrome Web Store. A year later it was redesigned to 'catalyze a big increase in traffic, across downloads, users, and total number of apps'. History Ĭhrome Web Store was publicly unveiled in December 2010, and was opened on February 11, 2011, with the release of Google Chrome 9.0. As of 2022, Chrome Web Store hosts about 123,000 extensions and 29,000 themes. Chrome Web Store is Google's online store for its Chrome web browser.

Chrome os store