To answer the question that will inevitably come: It's more than just a link.
We're really excited about this for a few reasons. First and foremost, it eliminates any sign-up friction to use the app, and that's pretty important. Chrome users are generally logged in with their Google accounts already.
Second, it's an important discovery feature that hasn't previously existed for the web. Chrome will be driving people to the web store, and a large install base of users (120M+ active) will hopefully be using it as a trusted source to find, rate, and install applications.
Third, Google is really pushing people building on web technologies to create their websites more like traditional apps. If you look at the NYT or Sports Illustrated apps they demo'ed today, you'll find a lot more in common interaction-wise with apps for the iPhone or iPad than you would with your traditional website. The difference is in the technologies used to make the app work.
Weebly is already a very complex and rich web application, and it's always been awkward to describe it as a "website" instead of an "application".
I think you put the reasons this is exciting in exactly the right order. No sign-up friction before people can start using your app? That's nuts. You almost want to redirect any of the chrome visitors to www.weebly.com to this reg flow!
Off topic question: How do you feel about so many people creating website with spammy content for SEO purposes? I've come across a few of them. I'm sure a ton get made. How do you deal with that?
We fight spam fairly aggressively, and the amount of spam created on the system is a very small percentage of the legitimate users. You've probably visited multiple legitimate Weebly websites before but just didn't know we were behind them.
From what we can tell, we have a lower percentage of spammy sites created than sites like Blogger or Wordpress. But it's an ongoing fight.
I meant to say that people are creating web applications that act more like "real" applications. Websites will likely follow a different evolutionary path.
Actually, the design contest results were amazing. We had over 2,000 submissions, and a couple hundred of those will end up being implemented in Weebly.
We're actually waiting until we can fully support all of the "features" of some of the best designs before bringing them in to the gallery, but half of the finalists are already live and available.
We're really excited about this for a few reasons. First and foremost, it eliminates any sign-up friction to use the app, and that's pretty important. Chrome users are generally logged in with their Google accounts already.
Second, it's an important discovery feature that hasn't previously existed for the web. Chrome will be driving people to the web store, and a large install base of users (120M+ active) will hopefully be using it as a trusted source to find, rate, and install applications.
Third, Google is really pushing people building on web technologies to create their websites more like traditional apps. If you look at the NYT or Sports Illustrated apps they demo'ed today, you'll find a lot more in common interaction-wise with apps for the iPhone or iPad than you would with your traditional website. The difference is in the technologies used to make the app work.
Weebly is already a very complex and rich web application, and it's always been awkward to describe it as a "website" instead of an "application".
EDIT: Also we'd really appreciate if people would try out the app and give it a rating at https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cnocophcbjfiimmnhl...