Apple's latest update to iOS 6 beta includes a redesign of its App Store search layout -- a move that has Apple-acquired Chomp's name all over it.
Apple’s App Store is getting a makeover. The redesigned mobile marketplace first showed up this week in the beta version of iOS 6, the final version of which is expected to launch along side the sixth-generation iPhone sometime in the second half of September. The App Store will give each searched-for app its own “card” — a design change that has app search and discovery platform Chomp all over it.
Back in February Apple scooped up Chomp for $100 million cash, a deal that transferred the 20 person team and Chomp’s technology to Apple. The iOS 6 update to the App Store, as first reported by Jail Break Nation, is the first look that we’re getting of Chomp and its technology’s integration into Apple. The most noticeable parallel to Chomp is the card-like interface that can be navigated by swiping from top to bottom. In iOS 5, Apple displays search results in a list format that shows users the app’s icon, rating, and price. Those characteristics remain the same. What’s different, however, are the first screen shots of each application that are prominently displayed as a preview within each card.
Behind the scenes, it’s evident that the far more robust algorithm provided by Chomp’s technology has been adopted by Apple. The current version of Apple’s App Store search engine returns different results, compared to iOS 6 (as Jail Break Nation shows us in the video). Apps that would otherwise appear as recommendations in iOS 5 are not present in the iOS 6 results.
With the introduction of the new App Store, the enhanced algorithm could spell trouble for existing developers and their businesses. Topping the App Store charts (particularly cracking the top 25 to reach the front page of searches) is imperative to an app’s success. So those hit by the new search algorithm have some worrying to do. Then again, this wouldn’t be the first time that Apple has been changing its algorithm, and just as Google tweaks its search algorithm on a regular basis, it surely won’t be the last.
Chomp may also offer Apple something else altogether: the confidence in its recommendation engine. The Genius Recommendations button was finally released in the latest update to the App Store’s beta and appears on the navigation bar at the very bottom of the App Store’s interface. This button recommends new apps that Apple users may be interested in downloading based on the analysis of the apps that have already been downloaded onto their Apple device.
Check out the video of the new App Store below, and let us know your thoughts about the new interface.
Source : digitaltrends[dot]com
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