If the browser is the new operating system, where will we buy software for it to run, and content for it to display? Google thinks it has found the answer, with its Chrome Web Store, announced at its own Google I/O conference in San Francisco on Wednesday.

Just like you can buy apps for your iPhone, Android, or other smartphone, you'll soon be able to purchase web apps for your browser.

This not only gives app developers a new avenue for selling their software, but will allow content industries such as news publications, video producers and musicians to sell web content, having notoriously struggled to make their content pay online in the absence of such a store.

For instance, a record label will be able to sell an album that displays extra content within a web browser as music plays, and publishers creating paid mobile apps will be able to apply the same approach to the web, perhaps charging $5 a month for premium access to their publications.

And, should they choose, they'll be able to offer these web apps for free. Confusion is quickly spreading about whether these apps will only run in Google's Chrome browser - despite the fact that Google clearly states near the top of the website for the Chrome Web Store that any modern browser will be able to run the apps.