iOS 6 Breaks the App Store • Hacker News Board

Re: iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

#41

Post by JumpCrisscross » Thu, Sep 20, 2012, 2:37 AM UTC

bpatrianakos wrote: post #29

tzs wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a buyer, I don't see how it is great for me. When I search on the App Store there are usually several hits in the results that are not at all interesting to me, and ahead of the hits that better match what I'm looking for. I want to see several results at once so I can pick which ones I want to look into more deeply. If I have to step through them one at a time with a noticeable delay at each step, I'm not going t…

You want this. You have certain tastes and preferences and expectations but you (and me and everyone else who reads HN) are not representative of the typical user. For a community all about entrepreneurship and building things for others you'd think we'd figure out by now that we are not the customer (unless you run some business directed directly at tech savvy people but you get my point). Also, I am astounded at th…

While I agree with your broader sentiment about this post being more change aversion than substantive debate the logic here is circular: if "multi-bazillion" dollar companies always initiate change because they "have the data that tells [them] it's going to make [them] more money" then any decision by a large company is self-evidently correct. This is false; the large company could have overlooked things, made a logical error, or have had an idiot on the web server team pushing changes he didn't realise broke iOS's WiFi capabilities. Your argument should push deeper than an appeal to Apple's authority.

Re: iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

#42

Post by phil » Thu, Sep 20, 2012, 2:38 AM UTC

I'm concerned about this.

App store search has had a heavy bias towards the top 4-5 results. This will only make that bias stronger.

Re: iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

#43

Post by JumpCrisscross » Thu, Sep 20, 2012, 2:38 AM UTC

danboarder wrote: post #40

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #38

>" No offense to the makers of “Picasa HD Lite”, which ranks #1 in a search for “picasa,” but Web Albums’ 5-star average from 483 ratings should be ranked higher than a 2.5-star average from 30 ratings. " No, if I search for X I want to get X, not a better rated app in the same category as X. If I search for "photo album" or something to that tune this argument would be valid.

@JumpCrisscross what you missed here is that "Web Albums" is the official google Picasa app for iOS. Picasa HD Lite is a low-rated knockoff optimized for appstore SEO. The author's point stands, the official Picasa app (Web Albums) should rank first.

Ah, I stand corrected (and educated). Carry on.

Re: iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

#44

Post by tolmasky » Thu, Sep 20, 2012, 2:38 AM UTC

tzs wrote: post #22

bpatrianakos wrote: post #18

Nothing is broken and no one is "doing it wrong". It's not broken, it's just inconvenient for you . This sucks for app developers with bad app store SEO and lackluster icons, app designs, and screenshots of said designs. Many apps at the bottom of the stack will be neglected. This is a good thing. I'm about to release an app into the app store for the first time and I'm happy about it. This will raise the bar for dev…

As a buyer, I don't see how it is great for me. When I search on the App Store there are usually several hits in the results that are not at all interesting to me, and ahead of the hits that better match what I'm looking for. I want to see several results at once so I can pick which ones I want to look into more deeply. If I have to step through them one at a time with a noticeable delay at each step, I'm not going t…

This hilarious part is had they left it the way it was, you would have actually seen MORE results with the new iPhone 5.

Re: iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

#45

Post by mikemoka » Thu, Sep 20, 2012, 2:46 AM UTC

bpatrianakos wrote: post #18

Nothing is broken and no one is "doing it wrong". It's not broken, it's just inconvenient for you . This sucks for app developers with bad app store SEO and lackluster icons, app designs, and screenshots of said designs. Many apps at the bottom of the stack will be neglected. This is a good thing. I'm about to release an app into the app store for the first time and I'm happy about it. This will raise the bar for dev…

This will raise the bar for the users as well unfortunately and I hope they will evaluate throughly.

A sample scenario:

I am on the move and I am looking for an app, I search with a keyword x, but I can only see ONE app at a time so:

1- I can't quickly compare the first search results and pick one in particular

2- If I want to see all the search results I have to swipe as many times as the number of the search results themselves

3-Finally I have to remember what I liked best then swipe all the way back to it

How can this be convenient for me, especially if I am in a hurry?

Re: iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

#46

Post by Jarshwah » Thu, Sep 20, 2012, 2:53 AM UTC

Came expecting news that the app store would not launch in iOS 6. Title is definitely more provocative than it needed to be.

Re: iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

#47

Post by crag » Thu, Sep 20, 2012, 2:54 AM UTC

omarqazi wrote: post #16

When searching for apps, do you guys usually immediately jump through the whole list? This is something I never do. However, I will look at apps one at a time and decide which one is best. On iOS 5 this meant clicking on each list item one by one, waiting (forever) for the app page to load, and eventually picking one. Allowing me to browse through apps one at a time and see all the information I need without ever lea…

I browse the same way. And this new layout is a welcome change for me. Finally I don't have to drill down every app I'm interested in to see screen shots and comments.

Re: iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

#48

Post by furyofantares » Thu, Sep 20, 2012, 3:04 AM UTC

If you view the details of at least half of the apps in your search results up to the one you eventually buy, this change means it takes less effort to find the app you want to buy, and you get more information in the process.

If I buy the sixth app in the search results and only care to review two of the earlier ones, the old method was 5 touches before the one I'm buying is in front of my face, while the new method is 5 swipes, and with the new method I get more information about the three I previously rejected based on icon/name alone.

I'm pretty sure my own experience is that the item I am looking for is usually in the top 3 results, and I pretty much always review the top 3 results, so this feels like it will make it significantly easier for me to get to the apps I want to buy.

I'll have to try it out to know, though. One thing I lose here if the 3rd app is the one I want is the confidence that the one I really want isn't somewhere in 4-10. It will take some usage to know if the new design is better for me or not.

Re: iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

#49

Post by MatthewPhillips » Thu, Sep 20, 2012, 3:08 AM UTC

mannkind wrote: post #10

jpdoctor wrote: post #4

Could the message be any more clear? Stop putting Apple in your critical path. They hold all the cards and you hold none.

Of course! There's no possible way to promote your app other than telling users to search for it in the App Store. If having users stumble upon your app is in your critical path, you have other problems. The search results have always been less-than-stellar whether you could scroll through 25 results in 1s or 11s.

Why hasn't Google jumped on this? If I search for "todo app" in Google, I get mostly blogs (SEO experts) and one app that apparently was the first to ask for the name Todo.

Shouldn't Google trigger a special view like they do when you search for "CITY_NAME weather" or "MOVIE_TITLE showtimes"?

Re: iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

#50

Post by joeld42 » Thu, Sep 20, 2012, 3:20 AM UTC

Zaheer wrote: post #36

bpatrianakos wrote: post #18

Nothing is broken and no one is "doing it wrong". It's not broken, it's just inconvenient for you . This sucks for app developers with bad app store SEO and lackluster icons, app designs, and screenshots of said designs. Many apps at the bottom of the stack will be neglected. This is a good thing. I'm about to release an app into the app store for the first time and I'm happy about it. This will raise the bar for dev…

Any resources you suggest for learning App Store SEO?

1) Have a long title with keywords in it: "Super Task: The todo organizer time management for agile" 2) Pick good keywords. Repeat them in your description copy. 3) Get everyone you know to give you a 5-star review when you launch.

That's about it. There's not much more you can do.