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The biggest thing Android's Play Store is terrible at (and I've heard the same charges leveled at the Apple's app store) is discovery. In Android, here's my us
by ethbro 9y ago
The biggest thing Android's Play Store is terrible at (and I've heard the same charges leveled at the Apple's app store) is discovery.
In Android, here's my use case: (1) Identify a need I want fulfilled by an app, (2) Search in the Play Store for some terms, (3) Receive a results page that gives me no information to discriminate (dodgy reviews, some basic screenshots, people saying it's unstable under the newest Android, etc), (4) Go do a web search +"Android app", (5) Browse through hundreds of shill sites that doubtfully even downloaded any of the "5 Best Android Paint Apps!", (6) Give up and do it on my laptop.
Imho, the key is leveraging the social graph. Which is something parts of Google seem to be clueless about (and parts seem to understand).
How about you review weight based on how closely connected I am to the reviewer?
- digi_owl 9y agoPretty much, though I find reviews to be too easy to be gamed to carry any value what so ever. What I would love is for an expert mode that allowed me to filter/sort Play store results by permissions, last update time and release time. I have seen way too many results put apps from the early days of Android up top alongside stuff released the last month, with no way to tell them apart except by opening each entry in turn, and look for data hidden behind the description foldout.
- ethbro 9y agoAgreed. The existing search options are also terrible. In the same way that I sometimes have trouble telling Amazon what I want displayed, and fall back on the Top 10 sold list for that category. Or even a "Has this app been updated since the release date of the version of Android I'm currently running?" option.