

Google search on Android marketplace is awful - megablast
http://phlogy.com/blog/?p=9
You can view the blog entry here, my server is rubbish:<p>http://ipadtravelguides.blogspot.com/2011/08/google-not-so-great-at-search.html
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orbitingpluto
I made the same mistake(?) with one my Android apps. Generic terms resulted in
less than 100 downloads in the first week after publishing. If the app wasn't
free (and ad free) I'm sure it would have stayed there forever. With almost 40
similar applications with the same keywords, it was unreasonable to expect it
to show up as the first hit. And even more unreasonable to expect people to
_pay_ for it.

Secondly, it would have been much better if I had included a different and
more applicable generic term in the name. Last month the app didn't even show
up on the first page of results on Google Market or AppBrain. Fortunately,
sorting by popularity yielded much better results. (About 25k over 4 months
for a can-never-be-popular app, first or second in popularity depending on the
week.)

Generic app names have one big advantage: They will eventually get to it and
you can rely on organic growth. But you can't expect them to pay for it. (But
maybe they will be willing to look at an ad, maybe.)

Worst of all: generic application name and a generic publisher name, in this
case: "Travel Guides USA Travel Guide"

I think it's best to choose something simple and small for a first
application. Don't cut corners, do it well, and don't expect to make any money
on it: you're in it for the experience. Make sure you're giving a unique
experience to your users. Beg for feedback! Interacting with your user base is
a fairly rewarding experience and it's amazing how helpful people can be. I've
even had someone go crazy submitting edited screenshots of my app with good UI
suggestions. Even dealing with the super angry at the world 1*-s is an
interesting experience. (Don't let it get to you when it happens, cause oh it
will happen.)

Side note: One of the most interesting things I have noticed in the Developer
Console is the statistics for language and country breakdown. One of my apps
had Portuguese first and then Russian as the dominant user language. English
eventually became first after 3 months. Koreans hate it. Even my Korean
friends hated it!

Another side note: Have any other Android Developers out there gotten emails
asking for your source code?

Oops - TL

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megablast
Great advice, thanks. I am not sure how better and more unique to describe my
app (it is a travel guide about the USA), or more company (which writes simple
travel guides).

Still, a lot of info to ponder.

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Funnnny
The author complain that when he search his own app name, his app listed at
number 20. I can't find any wrong about it, I would not trust or want an app
listed in the top, when it has only 1-5 install and 0 rating. Google knows how
to do search, and they know the name is not all.

~~~
megablast
That is not the problem I have, the problem I have, and why I wrote the
article, is that the other results are awful, and have nothing to do with what
I search for, 'USA Travel Guides'. Since I only release my app last week, I
have no problem with my app being down in the results.

Doing this search on android marketplace:
<https://market.android.com/search?q=usa+travel+guide>

Produced a few non travel guides, and most of the travel guides listed are for
countries other than the USA. This was my gripe. Surely a new app, with no
ratings should be higher in the list that a travel guide for India or Dublin?

~~~
Funnnny
The first and the third result seems resonable to me, Free, have over 100.000
install, in category Travel, and related to Travel as well.

Those "TRIPOSO TRAVEL GUIDES" app is a little problem there, but most of them
have over 1.000 install, and related to Travel, then the result is acceptable.

The truth is, when I search an app name in the Market, I expect an App that
have this function, not the App have this name. Doing this can prevent malware
app have a fake name. I don't really know how Google do search at the Market,
but I always found what I wanted here.

And remember you're searching for 'usa' 'travel' and 'guide' and it
combination, not the whole text.

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megablast
I agree, there are some good apps turned up in the search. The only issue I
have is all these weird apps turning up in the search, which have nothing to
do with USA travel. I expected more, but I can see why it is happening.

I have no problem with number of installs, or other factors affecting rating,
and have no issue with my new app being down the list. I just wish it was
higher rated than apps that have nothing to do with the search text.

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megablast
Sorry, you can also read the article here:
[http://ipadtravelguides.blogspot.com/2011/08/google-not-
so-g...](http://ipadtravelguides.blogspot.com/2011/08/google-not-so-great-at-
search.html)

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kumarm
Couldn't read the article as server seems to have issues. But if author is
assuming App Name search to result is App coming up first, thats totally
wrong.

Recently I received an email about some one copyrighting a very genenric name
for a book and requested me to change the name of my app since they already
copyrighted (mind you its copyrighted for book name).

~~~
shaggyfrog
In terms of UX, it's perfectly reasonable to expect a match on an app whose
name you type in exactly into the search box. Not at the bottom of the top-20,
and not outranked by completely unrelated stuff.

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zalew
funny thing is, this
[http://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs...](http://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=usa+travel+guide+site%3Amarket.android.com&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8)
works pretty well.

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rorrr
Your server is awful. 503.

