Mozilla announces prototype of web app store

Having announced its plans for a "open web app ecosystem" in late May, Mozilla has now released a prototype. This may be an attempt by Mozilla to pre-empt Google's announcement of the Chrome Web Store.

In the May post on the Mozilla blog, Jay Sullivan, Vice President of Products, writes "Supporting the needs of Web developers in their efforts to develop web sites and apps that aren’t bound to a specific browser and work across the Web is core to Mozilla’s public benefit mission."

The prototype store is designed to support what Mozilla calls "Open Web Apps". These are web applications built using HTML5, CSS and JavaScript and are capable of being “installed” to a dashboard within a mobile or desktop Web browser, or to a native OS desktop or mobile home screen. The store is to support payment for the apps using an existing authorisation model and will allow developers to distribute their apps directly without reference to a gate keeper. There is to be no exclusivity and apps can be distributed through multiple stores. The Mozilla developers take particular care to outline their approach to security for Open Web Application technology in a Mozilla Labs web page.

A demonstration video of the prototype store is available at the bottom of the release announcement web page and more information is available from the Mozilla Open Web Applications web page. Feedback on the project is encouraged through the Mozilla Labs Forum and updates on the project will appear on the Mozilla Labs Blog.

(trk)