This week’s reading answered some questions I’ve been thinking about for a long time regarding the app search feature in the iPhone application store. I’ve always wondered how app developers optimize their app in search and what contributes to a higher ranking. I became especially curious about this when we were fleshing out our ideas for our applications in class. I had come up with a robust Seattle traffic application and did a simple search for “traffic” to see what competitors were out there. While I found several traffic-related applications, I didn’t see any that offered the features I was proposing. That is why I was especially surprised when Corey showed us the “Seattle Freeways” application that was essentially exactly what I had been working on. How had I not found that in the dozens of apps that I scrolled through?! While it’s a fantastic app that offers features any Seattle driver would love and use regularly, its keywords and title were not created in a way that would optimize its presence in searches. While it makes sense that the iPhone app store does not display chosen keywords in order to avoid developers from copying their competition’s words, I would love to be able to take a look at the keywords of Seattle Freeways and other apps to really get a sense of what words have contributed or taken away from the success of these apps. I also thought Wooldridge had great advice regarding the naming of apps and how to create simple names with descriptive caption in order to include extra keywords.
I also thought the pricing section was interesting, but I still have some questions. Wooldridge wrote about how some developers will temporarily reduce the price of an existing application in order to popularize it once again. While this makes sense, I am curious to know how that would be known. For example, when I am searching for new apps, I typically just go to the “Top 25” section and download the apps that sound the most interesting. I don’t, however, check on old apps to see if the price has been reduced or even remember what apps cost that I haven’t yet downloaded. I suppose the developer could send out press releases to tech blogs, but is a small price reduction for an iPhone app big enough news that any blog would bother writing about it? I am curious to know how this information spreads and how effective this technique really is in selling more applications.
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