Google Adds Apps To Search Results
Google announced yesterday that it's added iPhone and Android apps to its search results when users search from a mobile device running one of those platforms. So, for instance, if a user searches for "download shazam", the top search result should be a link to the relevant app in the Android Market or iTunes App Store. In theory, anyway -- Marshall Kirkpatrick from Read/Write Web says there are still some kinks that need to be worked out (indeed, I can't seem to get it to work on my Droid Eris running Androind 2.1 yet).
One of Thibaut's current interests is what he calls "App Store Placement Optimization", or APO for short. Just like search engine optimization, APO is concerned with making apps appear at the top of search and other listings in app stores. As the number of apps grows and grows, APO will become an important skill for companies and people trying to drive downloads and sales of their apps.
The question then becomes, how will Google's app results work, and how will people utilize them? It's not yet clear how Google pulls the results, but it will be an important measure for marketers and developers to understand. If the results simply take the top listing on the search term from the app store, this new feature merely underlines the importance of APO and reinforces the need for developers to make their apps discoverable using the right search terms.
If the results work in another way, it will be important to figure out how -- and if -- they'll impact user behavior. Will users give up on searching the App Store or Android Market and rely on Google to find apps? Will there be any real advantages to doing so? Certainly as long as the search doesn't seem to work very well, the answer to both questions would seem to be no. But it's important to keep an eye on how the Google App Search evolves over time, just like any other channel through which users can find your app.