i hope this doesn't end up as bad as Ebay where some sellers have a long list of tags in their auctions just to come up in more searches
This would be my concern too - especially developers using misleading keywords to attract people to apps that aren't commonly associated with those keywords. I hope Apple has a scheme for insuring a certain level of integrity. But do they really need this extra headache for the app approval process?
Apple should look into some social networking style features. For example, being able to follow a certain publisher, friends, or reviewers. It of course wouldn't solve all the problems but it would be another tool to use. Their best bet is to just offer lots of different ways to explore the catalog. Maybe an "Upcoming" tab that shows apps that are rising in popularity quickly would help too.
I wouldn't mind being able to order searched apps by rating rather than download, with larger numbers of people rating giving more weight to the ratings. I keep looking for the best free games, and its like searching for a needle in a haystack to find them.
Why doesn't Apple take a page from its own itunes and make multiple ordering strings you can use to sort the apps?
Agreed, number of downloads is a meaningless factor by itself. What really matters are the ratings, and the number of ratings the overall rating is based on.
The best way to improve the App Store is to improve the apps. IMO, $.99 apps are killing the app store. There should never be anything on the App Store home page except exceptional apps. Crap apps should be consigned to the app ghetto. Apple needs to use better editorial judgement about what they choose to display in their storefront.
$0.99 apps are not killing the app store. There are many fine $0.99 apps in the app store. In fact, nothing is "killing" the app store. But keywords and ordering results by rating (and displaying ratings on listing pages) will go a long way to make it better. Expert reviews might be useful, but there is the danger that apps without expert reviews will be perceived as inferior, which makes the playing field less level.
$0.99 apps are not killing the app store. There are many fine $0.99 apps in the app store. In fact, nothing is "killing" the app store. But keywords and ordering results by rating (and displaying ratings on listing pages) will go a long way to make it better. Expert reviews might be useful, but there is the danger that apps without expert reviews will be perceived as inferior, which makes the playing field less level.
A lot of the really obvious things that could be done to fix the categorisation and searching of apps though are things that are unpopular and so will never be implemented.
For example the "free" category currently includes "free with advertising" even though it's arguable that this is not "free" at all. It's most often closer to a baited hook than it is to an application made by an altruist and given for free to the world because they aren't interested in commercialism or don't see a need to charge for it. Removing these apps into a separate category would clear out enormous amounts of junk, possibly even the majority of the "bad apps" that clutter up the store.
A second example is that user reviews could (and should) be completely discounted against the apps rating if the user is not willing to write at least a paragraph of explanation as to why the app is supposed to be good or bad. This will almost certainly never be implemented because of some misguided idea that "everyone's input is as valid as anyone else's" (which is BS objectively speaking), but it would go a long long way towards making the ratings more accurate and giving the prospective buyer actual good information about the app. It's an excellent, easy way to improve things overnight but it will never happen.
A third example is to allow people to filter the store. If I as a consumer am never, ever interested in stupid sports apps (I'm not), or any other category of app, I should by all rights be allowed to filter them out. Born-agains could filter out adult content, Capitalists could filter out free stuff etc. I know for a fact that I could easily reduce the thousands and thousands of apps in the store to just a few hundred if I was allowed to only see what I *want* to see, but this would be "against business" or some such in their eyes and will likely never happen in a million years.
These are just the first three off the top of my head suggestions, but there are innumerable other ways in which the customer experience and the utility of the store could be improved, that will simply never be implemented due to the commercial nature of the store itself, the mercantile interests of both Apple and the "developers," and the expectations of the average consumer.
The number of Apps are staggering, and has continued unabated. Unless something better than keywords is done, it will be impossible to introduce a new App or find an old one.
Keywords search is a good start, but I think Google Police need to be called for help. After all, they are the kings of search. Make the call Steve!
lol yeah call google to help develop search techniques for an app store than banned the google voice app :P
Also, unlike the application description it can?t be adjusted between binary application updates. This means it will be manually reviewed by Apple during approvals. This also means the end of keyword spamming, which is really what the change is all about.
Good move, but still not really much without someone policing it.
i suspect there is, or will be shortly, a clause in the developer agreement that all keywords must be relevant and any padding will result in having your app pulled.
i suspect there is, or will be shortly, a clause in the developer agreement that all keywords must be relevant and any padding will result in having your app pulled.
+1. It's gonna be a matter of time before everything gets pulled off the App Store.
Comments
i hope this doesn't end up as bad as Ebay where some sellers have a long list of tags in their auctions just to come up in more searches
This would be my concern too - especially developers using misleading keywords to attract people to apps that aren't commonly associated with those keywords. I hope Apple has a scheme for insuring a certain level of integrity. But do they really need this extra headache for the app approval process?
I wouldn't mind being able to order searched apps by rating rather than download, with larger numbers of people rating giving more weight to the ratings. I keep looking for the best free games, and its like searching for a needle in a haystack to find them.
Why doesn't Apple take a page from its own itunes and make multiple ordering strings you can use to sort the apps?
Agreed, number of downloads is a meaningless factor by itself. What really matters are the ratings, and the number of ratings the overall rating is based on.
The best way to improve the App Store is to improve the apps. IMO, $.99 apps are killing the app store. There should never be anything on the App Store home page except exceptional apps. Crap apps should be consigned to the app ghetto. Apple needs to use better editorial judgement about what they choose to display in their storefront.
$0.99 apps are not killing the app store. There are many fine $0.99 apps in the app store. In fact, nothing is "killing" the app store. But keywords and ordering results by rating (and displaying ratings on listing pages) will go a long way to make it better. Expert reviews might be useful, but there is the danger that apps without expert reviews will be perceived as inferior, which makes the playing field less level.
$0.99 apps are not killing the app store. There are many fine $0.99 apps in the app store. In fact, nothing is "killing" the app store. But keywords and ordering results by rating (and displaying ratings on listing pages) will go a long way to make it better. Expert reviews might be useful, but there is the danger that apps without expert reviews will be perceived as inferior, which makes the playing field less level.
A lot of the really obvious things that could be done to fix the categorisation and searching of apps though are things that are unpopular and so will never be implemented.
For example the "free" category currently includes "free with advertising" even though it's arguable that this is not "free" at all. It's most often closer to a baited hook than it is to an application made by an altruist and given for free to the world because they aren't interested in commercialism or don't see a need to charge for it. Removing these apps into a separate category would clear out enormous amounts of junk, possibly even the majority of the "bad apps" that clutter up the store.
A second example is that user reviews could (and should) be completely discounted against the apps rating if the user is not willing to write at least a paragraph of explanation as to why the app is supposed to be good or bad. This will almost certainly never be implemented because of some misguided idea that "everyone's input is as valid as anyone else's" (which is BS objectively speaking), but it would go a long long way towards making the ratings more accurate and giving the prospective buyer actual good information about the app. It's an excellent, easy way to improve things overnight but it will never happen.
A third example is to allow people to filter the store. If I as a consumer am never, ever interested in stupid sports apps (I'm not), or any other category of app, I should by all rights be allowed to filter them out. Born-agains could filter out adult content, Capitalists could filter out free stuff etc. I know for a fact that I could easily reduce the thousands and thousands of apps in the store to just a few hundred if I was allowed to only see what I *want* to see, but this would be "against business" or some such in their eyes and will likely never happen in a million years.
These are just the first three off the top of my head suggestions, but there are innumerable other ways in which the customer experience and the utility of the store could be improved, that will simply never be implemented due to the commercial nature of the store itself, the mercantile interests of both Apple and the "developers," and the expectations of the average consumer.
The number of Apps are staggering, and has continued unabated. Unless something better than keywords is done, it will be impossible to introduce a new App or find an old one.
Keywords search is a good start, but I think Google Police need to be called for help. After all, they are the kings of search. Make the call Steve!
lol yeah call google to help develop search techniques for an app store than banned the google voice app :P
Also, unlike the application description it can?t be adjusted between binary application updates. This means it will be manually reviewed by Apple during approvals. This also means the end of keyword spamming, which is really what the change is all about.
Good move, but still not really much without someone policing it.
i suspect there is, or will be shortly, a clause in the developer agreement that all keywords must be relevant and any padding will result in having your app pulled.
i suspect there is, or will be shortly, a clause in the developer agreement that all keywords must be relevant and any padding will result in having your app pulled.
+1. It's gonna be a matter of time before everything gets pulled off the App Store.