

Furbo: Year Two - slater
http://furbo.org/2009/07/10/year-two/

======
blasdel
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/viewSoftwa...](http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=315659984&mt=8)
) 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.

~~~
Zev
<http://itunes.com/app/AppName> works. Case insensitive, remove spaces if
necessary.

~~~
blasdel
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.

------
blasdel
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.

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soundsop
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.

------
allenbrunson
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-o...](http://www.platinumball.net/blog/2009/06/25/app-store-rite-of-
passage/)

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.

