4 ms·

Furbo: Year Two

14 points by slater 17y ago

blasdel 17y ago
They could massively improve the App Store interface for customers if they made the app URLs ( like http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=315659984&mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwa... ) more than a shitass redirect to a proprietary itunes:// URL. The directory of apps doesn't have to be any good, just crawlable -- all this shit just needs to be Googleable, and possible for third-parties to build sites and communities around.
- ScottWhigham 17y ago
  Upvoted for use of the term "shitass"
- Zev 17y ago
  http://itunes.com/app/AppName http://itunes.com/app/AppName works. Case insensitive, remove spaces if necessary.
  - blasdel 17y ago
    The gross URL is irrelevant -- the problem is that there is zero content in the HTTP Response, and not even an index of the URLs.
soundsop 17y ago
The title is horrible. This article is actually a very thoughtful review of the iTunes App Store from a app developer's point of view.
blasdel 17y ago
They really just need to completely kill the review and rating system, and start over from scratch -- they somehow managed to make something shittier than eBay ratings! The star ratings are totally useless -- everything trends to the same average. It should be replaced with a 'flagging' system -- Craigslist is a good example. There'd be only two buttons: "Report this app" and "This is awesome!". Both would be followed up with annoying email surveys, and the results would not be directly shown in the UI anywhere. An Amazon-style review system could work: a Pro Apple review for prominent apps, along with user reviews filtered by "Was this insightful?" voting from other users who downloaded the app, with a strong version-decay. I highly doubt Apple will ever do something anywhere near that decent.
allenbrunson 17y ago
This is well-balanced. We hear a lot of horror stories, but there are a lot of developers who don't have too many problems. Here's my own story: http://www.platinumball.net/blog/2009/06/25/app-store-rite-of-passage/ http://www.platinumball.net/blog/2009/06/25/app-store-rite-o... pretty uneventful. But I have to admit, I probably would have picked a more ambitious first app than a card game, if I wasn't afraid of potential consequences with my first few app ideas.

14 points by slater 17y ago

They could massively improve the App Store interface for customers if they made the app URLs ( like http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=315659984&mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwa... ) more than a shitass redirect to a proprietary itunes:// URL. The directory of apps doesn't have to be any good, just crawlable -- all this shit just needs to be Googleable, and possible for third-parties to build sites and communities around.

ScottWhigham 17y ago
Upvoted for use of the term "shitass"
Zev 17y ago
http://itunes.com/app/AppName http://itunes.com/app/AppName works. Case insensitive, remove spaces if necessary.
- blasdel 17y ago
  The gross URL is irrelevant -- the problem is that there is zero content in the HTTP Response, and not even an index of the URLs.

soundsop 17y ago

The title is horrible. This article is actually a very thoughtful review of the iTunes App Store from a app developer's point of view.

blasdel 17y ago

They really just need to completely kill the review and rating system, and start over from scratch -- they somehow managed to make something shittier than eBay ratings! The star ratings are totally useless -- everything trends to the same average. It should be replaced with a 'flagging' system -- Craigslist is a good example. There'd be only two buttons: "Report this app" and "This is awesome!". Both would be followed up with annoying email surveys, and the results would not be directly shown in the UI anywhere. An Amazon-style review system could work: a Pro Apple review for prominent apps, along with user reviews filtered by "Was this insightful?" voting from other users who downloaded the app, with a strong version-decay. I highly doubt Apple will ever do something anywhere near that decent.

allenbrunson 17y ago

This is well-balanced. We hear a lot of horror stories, but there are a lot of developers who don't have too many problems. Here's my own story: http://www.platinumball.net/blog/2009/06/25/app-store-rite-of-passage/ http://www.platinumball.net/blog/2009/06/25/app-store-rite-o... pretty uneventful. But I have to admit, I probably would have picked a more ambitious first app than a card game, if I wasn't afraid of potential consequences with my first few app ideas.