Interesting Chrome Extensions On the Way

Google has opened up the Chrome Extension Gallery (beta) to developers. This means that anyone can now upload their extensions. Google says it is making the upload flow available early so developers have time to publish their extensions ahead of Google's full launch.

"Once an extension is uploaded, our gallery takes care of packaging and signing," says Google software engineer Lei Zheng. "Updating an extension is also incredibly easy — all a developer needs to do is to upload a new file in the gallery. Finally, to further help developers, in the next few days, we plan to open up the gallery to a small group of trusted testers. They will provide developers with insights and bug reports that will help them polish their extensions ahead of our beta launch."

Google provides the following tips for uploading extensions:

- Upload a ZIP file of your extension directory, not a packaged CRX file.

- Include a well-designed product icon in your manifest (more info).

- After uploading your extension, you will need to provide a detailed description, as well as screenshots or a YouTube video of your extension in action.

The review process is fully automated in most cases. Google will manually review ones that include an NPAPI component and all content scripts that affect "file://" URLs. Developers will have to give Google additional information for these types of extensions, for security reasons.

Information about how to write extensions for Chrome can be found here. Google says all types of extensions are welcome, as long as they comply with their terms of service.


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MTV Launches New Online Video Ad Unit

Target and MTV Networks have partnered to launch a new online video ad unit called "The Scrubber."

The Scrubber is a custom video player that allows advertisers to insert product icons into the playback timer and highlight various items as the video plays. The unit is designed to be interactive, relevant and non-interruptive to the user.

"Whether it's messaging, design or delivery, Target is tops at innovating in marketing while maintaining a strong focus on the consumer," said Jason Witt, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Digital Fusion, MTV Networks.

"With Target, we've developed an entirely new way to deliver retail messages through short-form online video, and the result is better advertising with greater impact."

The Scrubber works by scrolling over various product icons as a video plays. Each time the Scrubber scrolls over a product icon, a message overly appears and invites users to get more information or purchase the item. The Target unit was custom-designed to incorporate the retailer's red and white colors, and the Scrubber ball takes the shape of the Target bullseye logo.

The Scrubber will feature products relevant to MTV Networks' audience, for example on MTV.com it will highlight Target's line of entertainment and fashion products.

The Scrubber is one of a number of campaigns co-authored by MTVN's Digital Fusion team, an online advertising and marketing unit that across all MTV Networks' properties.