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There's no "algorithm that shot you down", a human reviewer took you to task for violating their published keyword spam policy. Putting popular competitors' nam

There's no "algorithm that shot you down", a human reviewer took you to task for violating their published keyword spam policy. Putting popular competitors' names in your app's name so that you come up when someone searches for them is spammy. https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/2985717?hl=en https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ... > Your app's title shouldn't use other products' branding or names at the start of your app title without permission. Remove Siri from your app's name and resubmit it. Hope that you got enough of a userbase from the time you appropriated Apple's trademark for keyword traffic to climb back onto the charts on your own merits. Yes, you'll lose the reviews and download counts accumulated from that spam.

ilyaeck 11y ago
We did not appropriate Apple's brand. Had that been the case, Apple would have sued us long ago. Siri as simply become synonymous with voice apps, it's a simple way to communicate the app's purpose to users.
- deleted 11y ago
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- airza 11y ago
  You can bluster about the reason being unfair if you want, but someone explained it to you and it seems to pretty obviously apply to your case and it did the exact thing that spam is supposed to do (have your app show up when someone searches for 'Siri') I'm not sure why you think that this is unfair.
  - ilyaeck 11y ago
    We are not really a Siri competitor because there is no Siri on Google Play. So when people look for 'Siri' there, what they are in fact looking for are apps like Robin. is this not to their benefit then? Plus, had Google just warned us about this and asked to change the description, we would have complied. Isn't this what the term "disproportionate force" stands for?
    - dangrossman 11y ago
      How's that argument work for the other 18 competing Android apps and brands you also listed in your description? When someone types in Waze, they're looking for Waze, not Robin. It's Google's marketplace. You gamed it and got downloads and reviews you wouldn't have otherwise. They took those away, nothing more: you were invited to resubmit the app with the policy violations removed. That's a fair response, not that Google is required to be fair.
      - ilyaeck 11y ago
        Many people use Robin in combination with Waze - it makes the experience better. Not a competitive situation at all.
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Arjuna 11y ago
To add to the discussion, and to dangrossman's analysis: I offer the following recommendations. You should do these before considering any re-submission of your app: 1. I took a look at a cached version of your app's page. I recommend removing all references to all competitor's products. As an example, copy like this needs to be removed entirely: "Compare to voice assistants and chatbots such as Siri, Nuance, Dragon, Vlingo, Evi, Voice, VoiceSearch, SpeaktoIt Assistant, Skyvi and Google Now, as well as GPS navigation such as Waze, Scout, MapQuest, Navigon, Garmin, TomTom, MotionX, Yelp, etc." This is in violation of Google's keyword spam policy, as you are using references to, "popular search terms and competitor apps." 2. Remove all user reviews from your app's description section. For example, you need to remove the following line: "Users say: 'After trying S-Voice, Assistant, Skyvi or Hound ...Robin is the best voice app of its kind; clearly the best choice for drivers in need of information on the road.'" This violates the section of the policy that states: "Please do not include user testimonials in your app description. They tend to be dubious and are frequently utilized to include references to popular search terms and competitor apps in violation of the policies outlined here. Let your users speak for themselves via Play's comment review system." 3. Remove all references to competitor apps in your actual app. For example, I see on the cached page that you have a reference to Siri in one of the screen images (e.g., the image that says, "Why don't you ask Siri?") 4. I checked out your website. Again, I recommend removing all references to competitor's apps. For example, you directly compare your product to Siri on the following page, and use that product's name at least 5 times: http://robingets.me/robinlabs/html/technology.html http://robingets.me/robinlabs/html/technology.html . I recommend that you avoid this. Instead, the copy should position your technology to stand on the merit and strength of what it has to offer, in its own right. Best of luck.

ilyaeck 11y ago

We did not appropriate Apple's brand. Had that been the case, Apple would have sued us long ago. Siri as simply become synonymous with voice apps, it's a simple way to communicate the app's purpose to users.

deleted 11y ago
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airza 11y ago
You can bluster about the reason being unfair if you want, but someone explained it to you and it seems to pretty obviously apply to your case and it did the exact thing that spam is supposed to do (have your app show up when someone searches for 'Siri') I'm not sure why you think that this is unfair.
- ilyaeck 11y ago
  We are not really a Siri competitor because there is no Siri on Google Play. So when people look for 'Siri' there, what they are in fact looking for are apps like Robin. is this not to their benefit then? Plus, had Google just warned us about this and asked to change the description, we would have complied. Isn't this what the term "disproportionate force" stands for?
  - dangrossman 11y ago
    How's that argument work for the other 18 competing Android apps and brands you also listed in your description? When someone types in Waze, they're looking for Waze, not Robin. It's Google's marketplace. You gamed it and got downloads and reviews you wouldn't have otherwise. They took those away, nothing more: you were invited to resubmit the app with the policy violations removed. That's a fair response, not that Google is required to be fair.
    - ilyaeck 11y ago
      Many people use Robin in combination with Waze - it makes the experience better. Not a competitive situation at all.
deleted 11y ago
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Arjuna 11y ago

To add to the discussion, and to dangrossman's analysis: I offer the following recommendations. You should do these before considering any re-submission of your app: 1. I took a look at a cached version of your app's page. I recommend removing all references to all competitor's products. As an example, copy like this needs to be removed entirely: "Compare to voice assistants and chatbots such as Siri, Nuance, Dragon, Vlingo, Evi, Voice, VoiceSearch, SpeaktoIt Assistant, Skyvi and Google Now, as well as GPS navigation such as Waze, Scout, MapQuest, Navigon, Garmin, TomTom, MotionX, Yelp, etc." This is in violation of Google's keyword spam policy, as you are using references to, "popular search terms and competitor apps." 2. Remove all user reviews from your app's description section. For example, you need to remove the following line: "Users say: 'After trying S-Voice, Assistant, Skyvi or Hound ...Robin is the best voice app of its kind; clearly the best choice for drivers in need of information on the road.'" This violates the section of the policy that states: "Please do not include user testimonials in your app description. They tend to be dubious and are frequently utilized to include references to popular search terms and competitor apps in violation of the policies outlined here. Let your users speak for themselves via Play's comment review system." 3. Remove all references to competitor apps in your actual app. For example, I see on the cached page that you have a reference to Siri in one of the screen images (e.g., the image that says, "Why don't you ask Siri?") 4. I checked out your website. Again, I recommend removing all references to competitor's apps. For example, you directly compare your product to Siri on the following page, and use that product's name at least 5 times: http://robingets.me/robinlabs/html/technology.html http://robingets.me/robinlabs/html/technology.html . I recommend that you avoid this. Instead, the copy should position your technology to stand on the merit and strength of what it has to offer, in its own right. Best of luck.