I’m not sure whether to be happy or upset with this news. Google Chrome team has started reviewing all extension and apps hosted on the Chrome Web Store. Similar to Mozilla AMO team, Chrome team would also review each and every update submitted by the extension developers before it goes live to the users.

As a Chrome user, I find this very exciting. By this move, Chrome team would ensure that all extensions and apps are safe for the users. This would also check unintentional and intentional flaws that may cause trouble for the users.

On the other hand, as an extension and app developer, I hate this review policy. This would slow down the extension update process. I’ve really bad experience with Mozilla’s AMO review process, where the approval (still) takes several weeks. This irritates not just the developers, but also the end users.

On contacting for more details, Chrome team confirmed that this manual review policy is for all developers submitting new or updated version of their extensions and apps.

Just to remind you here, Google has already disabled extension installation from third-party sources. Users can install extensions and apps only from the Chrome Web Store.