This is awesome news (though it's been known for a while) for the top publishers who have: large download numbers, good AppStore SEO, and good screenshots. While I think that this is bad on whole for developers/discovery as we knew it, it might just help users. Most of the time, users are either window shopping or looking for a very specific product. Window Shoppers: "I want a photo editing app", chances are you are…
Where are Facebook likes displayed? I can't seem them in the either version of the AppStore (Web, inside iTunes, from iPad).
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…
I do agree that people here scoff at things because they don't like it personally, I do think multi-bazillion dollar companies can easily be wrong sometimes. Take Buzz, Ping and the Kin for example, all three were winded down.
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…
Yeah, the premise about user behavior in this post feels wrong. I never browse the app store by searching. I search for a specific thing by name and it's normally a top result.
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.
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…
I don't buy it, users will probably click into each app anyway because they will want to see more than one screenshot and the comments.
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…
what you don't realize since you are just starting is that Apple just changed the search results to weight time on store and number of downloads more heavily. That means your SEO isn't going to put you in the front right away. this change is going to have the effect of less total apps seen which is going to make it even harder for new apps. I just had an app that got covered by several major blogs, good reviews, and had hundreds of downloads for the first few days. After a month I'm now getting between 0-2 downloads a day, and I'm 8 for the search of my app name.
I think you could be right to a point for people that have quality apps that are already ranking, but I think this is going to make fewer total apps seen and therefore make it even harder for new apps to gain traction. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm afraid any app outside the top 5 search results will have sales go to 0.
This is awesome news (though it's been known for a while) for the top publishers who have: large download numbers, good AppStore SEO, and good screenshots. While I think that this is bad on whole for developers/discovery as we knew it, it might just help users. Most of the time, users are either window shopping or looking for a very specific product. Window Shoppers: "I want a photo editing app", chances are you are…
Where are Facebook likes displayed? I can't seem them in the either version of the AppStore (Web, inside iTunes, from iPad).
@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.
Not entirely. They should have the word Picasa in their title. If that is what it is, why not name the app, Picasa Web Albums?