31–40 of 103 posts
I still find it strange at times to wrap my head around the fact that for decades we championed a distributed and an open world-scale system - The Internet. And now, we are going back to policies controlled by 'guidelines' and rules and terms and conditions of large corporations -- Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Blackberry. Either we as a developer community got lost somewhere; or this was a careful, well thought-out…
This story isn't adding up so far. > But sources close to [Apple] say it was more than a little troubled that AppGratis was pushing a business model that appeared to favor developers with the financial means to pay for exposure. http://allthingsd.com/20130408/confirmed-apple-kicks-appgrat... That's the closest thing I can find to a "confirmation" that AppGratis was accepting cash in exchange for a higher rank in thei…
Does there need to be one? They're incredibly annoying, especially when high-profile apps get away with them.
This story isn't adding up so far. > But sources close to [Apple] say it was more than a little troubled that AppGratis was pushing a business model that appeared to favor developers with the financial means to pay for exposure. http://allthingsd.com/20130408/confirmed-apple-kicks-appgrat... That's the closest thing I can find to a "confirmation" that AppGratis was accepting cash in exchange for a higher rank in thei…
They do a very poor job of enforcing this. Around Christmas about every app I have sent me a "I'm still here!" push notification around that time advertising itself. And every zynga game I've purchased (a habit I've discontinued) does this both for itself and for other zynga games a few times a month.
I still find it strange at times to wrap my head around the fact that for decades we championed a distributed and an open world-scale system - The Internet. And now, we are going back to policies controlled by 'guidelines' and rules and terms and conditions of large corporations -- Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Blackberry. Either we as a developer community got lost somewhere; or this was a careful, well thought-out…
For many freedom of choice is stressful, but receiving orders is not.
I am ashamed by some of the reactions here (appart from jacquesm which offers a balanced one) AppGratis is a media, and like all media, it runs on advertising. The quality of apps promoted is shown in the fact that many apps stayed high in the ranking after the promotion and most apps (95%+) never paid to be featured by AppGratis. There was a cost - the cost of giving away an app with in App purchase credits or what…
In most media the advertising and the content are separate things and clearly demarcated. That's the problem that's being highlighted here. AppGratis' content was its advertising.
Ostensible media which is being paid for positive reviews/highlighting of subjects has always been viewed as unethical.
I don't know how much of AppGratis' highlighted apps were paid for, but if the answer is "any", then I think they violated their users' trust.
This story isn't adding up so far. > But sources close to [Apple] say it was more than a little troubled that AppGratis was pushing a business model that appeared to favor developers with the financial means to pay for exposure. http://allthingsd.com/20130408/confirmed-apple-kicks-appgrat... That's the closest thing I can find to a "confirmation" that AppGratis was accepting cash in exchange for a higher rank in thei…
Not my strong area, but I will point out that the rest of the blogger's post is fantasy. If you are correct, then nothing he wrote is right.
- Paid links is not blackhat SEO. Blackhat SEO involves building links though browser exploits and spam & getting referrals from hijacked pages that rank well. Major newspaper brands sell paid links. No one would call them or their customers blackhat. In fact, buying links is considered whitehat SEO.
- Paid results absolutely do not take in to account a user's satisfaction. Google has a list of prohibited types of ad customers some of which is strictly enforced (things that are illegal under federal law) and other parts that are not enforced at all.
- Studies have shown a large % of Google users do not even understand that the top ads are ads. Take a look at it some tip on an older LCD screen with a poor viewing angle and you will notice the pink background color is imperceptible. This is intentional.
- Google's job is not to provide the best results. It is to provide the results that benefit them best. ( http://www.benedelman.org/news/011212-1.html )
I'm not sure who the original author is, but it is a bit disturbing to me that there are people in this industry that have swallowed Google's propaganda in its entirety, and then are applying those concepts to the world at large. Assuming he is not a Google employee, I think he may be in for a shock on how brutal, inconsistent, and cut throat this business is.
Apple's ban does not help in improving users' [that's us] experience. A better response from Apple would be fixing core of the matter.
I recall that couple of years ago Apple purchased app search&discovery start-up for circa $50M. Looks like reverse integration took place... unfortunately.
I discovered more high quality apps on HN than in App Store.
This story isn't adding up so far. > But sources close to [Apple] say it was more than a little troubled that AppGratis was pushing a business model that appeared to favor developers with the financial means to pay for exposure. http://allthingsd.com/20130408/confirmed-apple-kicks-appgrat... That's the closest thing I can find to a "confirmation" that AppGratis was accepting cash in exchange for a higher rank in thei…
For what it’s worth, in a previous HN thread, several users reported having received offers from AppGratis:
“We were told $3 per install or $100k flat rate for 1 day.”[1]
“I was also quoted a flat fee of $100k”[2]
This story isn't adding up so far. > But sources close to [Apple] say it was more than a little troubled that AppGratis was pushing a business model that appeared to favor developers with the financial means to pay for exposure. http://allthingsd.com/20130408/confirmed-apple-kicks-appgrat... That's the closest thing I can find to a "confirmation" that AppGratis was accepting cash in exchange for a higher rank in thei…
This is the core of their business model. I think a better way to explain is more like Groupon for Apps. You get access to their 12M members, but in exchange, you agree to 1) set your app to free for a day or discount heavily for a day and 2) pay AppGratis for the promotion opportunity.
In terms of whether this is "black hat" or not, I think it's not really black hat. It obviously has the same effect as buying a bunch of paid installs via CPI networks, you just get a lot more velocity given the large audience that AppGratis has access to.
In terms of business model justification, you can defend them on the basis that they do the work of finding app developers who make quality apps (note that most of the apps they promote have high ratings) that may not currently be marketed well and they convince them to make it free for one day only. Users love free stuff and obviously based on their downloads and growth, people found a lot of value in the service. The fact that the side benefit of being featured is that you skyrocket in the app store rankings is not AppGratis's fault, that's something Apple can account for in the app store ranking algorithms if they want to (it's their garden after all). This would be no different than an Amazon Gold Box offer that discounts something heavily and that product rises to the top of the "Bestsellers" list for a limited time.