Thursday, October 28, 2010

Google Adds App Store Search to the iPhone

You can now search the App Store through Google search on the iPhone. Google recently added an “iPhone apps” category to its search options. This new option is available within the official Google Mobile app and the Google web interface on mobile Safari.

Google indexes the App Store to bring you only iPhone apps when you are searching on your iPhone or iPod touch. You are given a list of results with the price, average star rating and a brief description for your viewing pleasure. Nothing too fancy though.
When you click the app you want to go to, Google merely takes you to the iTunes web preview page. And the preview page doesn’t even prompt the App Store app to open, which is odd…
iPhone app results from the App Store are also brought into your main Google search results. The new “iPhone apps” category is simply something you can select from the search category list to refine your results.
Is Google trying to make up for the occasional sluggishness when searching the App Store? I’m not sure. This new addition to Google web search honestly seems quite random. Apparently, Google has added the feature to both Android and iOS, allowing users to search their respective app stores with the new category.
Will you be using Google search to find your iPhone apps now? I personally don’t see the incentive. The results are a tad bit quicker, but the App Store interface is more interactive and to the point. What do you think?

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