Google has announced that the Google Chrome web browser now has 160 million users, and the company is pushing new features such as speech input and updates to the Chrome Web Store — including support for in-app payments.
Developers can now add the ability to use Google’s payment system to a web app simply by adding a single line of code. Google will take a 5% cut of all payments, which is a lot better than the 30% cut Google, Apple, and other companies tend to take from app purchases in mobile app stores such as the Android Market or iTunes App Store.
With the launch of a payment system, Google also announced that uber-popular mobile game Angry Birds is coming to Chrome OS. Rovio says the game will run at 60 frames per second in the browser on most modern computers. The game also takes advantage of caching abilities so that you can play through the entire game even when you’re offline.
The Chrome version of Angry Birds also has a few exclusive levels, and as soon as the in-app payments are live, Rovio will allow users to purchase the “Might Eagle” option through an in-app purchase.
Google has also announced that the Web Store is now available in 41 languages and accessible to all 160 million Chrome users around the globe.
That’s 160,000,000 Chrome users, not 160k.
I was only off by an order of magnitude… 🙂 Fixed!