Yesterday at Google I/O it was almost all about Chrome, but they also covered a lot about the Android Market and had quite a bit to say regarding some much needed improvements. Having an app be discovered by the users has always been a challenge for Android. I know a few great game dev’s that had a hard time getting their apps into the eyes of users. Google has introduced 5 great new ways to discover all the newest and greatest apps on the Android Market, a very welcomed improvement.
Along with the I/O keynote, the Google Mobile Blog was getting into all of the exciting changes to the market and I am here to go over them for those that might have missed it. My personal favorites are the new “Editors Choice” apps and “Trending Apps”. This will be a great way to find those popular apps you might not have known about, or ones that are taking off and in the trending list.
New top app charts – We’ve revamped our top app charts to be fresher and country-specific, so you get the most current, relevant results. We’ve also added top new free, top new paid, and top grossing lists, all right on the Android Market home page.
Editors’ Choice – These are some of the very best apps available for Android, as chosen by the Android Market staff. They span everything from games to productivity and beyond.
Top Developers – We’re also recognizing those developers creating the highest quality, most popular, and most notable apps available on Android Market. They’ll get a special icon on our Android Market website, appearing wherever the developer name is shown, starting today for an initial set of over 150 developers.
Better related apps – On the left side of an app page, you’ll now see two groups of related apps: apps frequently browsed by people who viewed this app, and apps that people tend to install alongside this app. For example, people who view ScoreMobile, my favorite sports score app, often also view other sports score apps, while those who install ScoreMobile tend to also install apps for specific sports leagues or teams. We’ll also show you related apps once you decide to install an app.
Trending apps – Finally, we’ve added a new section to the Android Market homepage showing trending apps – those apps that are quickly growing in daily installs. Look here to stay ahead of the curve and find new apps as they get hot.
I must say the Trending apps is a great idea, just like Twitter you can see what is trending and “hot” at that moment. So for people busy with work, or for some reason didn’t come to AndroidCommunity to get the latest news and missed that a popular new game was just released, you will now see those in the trending list if they get enough installs. Here is a screenshot from the I/O keynote showing some of the changes on a chart as well.
For a team like Google, that makes most of their huge sales numbers from being the best at indexing things like Google searches, and search results. I am pretty confident with saying I’m sure they have came up with a pretty good system or algorithm for showing us the latest and greatest apps. Things are starting to look up for the Android Market more and more, long gone are the days where the market is one of Android’s weakest links. Soon it will be one of the strongest.
[via Google Mobile Blog]
finding apps over android market is tough job. You suggested some good tips to look for new & trending apps. There are some good apps also to research for good apps.