Apple Changes App Store Search Algorithm
Apple changes the App Store search algorithm
A few months ago we told you that Apple seemed to be touching the App Store’s search algorithm. It seems that Cupertino’s have again made changes to this algorithm . The most significant change is that we can now search for applications using a certain keyword, such as “notes” or “races” . The changes in the algorithm do not affect the ranking of the applications at the top of the table.
The change, discovered by marketing tools provider MobileDevHQ , affects both iPhone and iPad applications and was theoretically implemented between December 11th and 12th. How did they find out? Well, by the number of position changes they detected that day. While the average number of position changes is 5 positions per day in the iPhone apps, on that day there were no less than 41.5 position changes .
App Store algorithm change makes rankings dance
As we mentioned earlier, Apple also made changes to the App Store’s search algorithm when it released iOS 7. In the graphic at the top of the post, you can see the changes made to the App Store for the iPhone. The first peak in the graph is from when iOS 7 was released. The second is the current change.
In the following graphic you can see the changes introduced in the search algorithm, but this time for iPad. In this case, however, the changes made when iOS 7 was released were much greater than those made now.
Here is a table showing the difference in search results for a number of very specific keywords. The list has been made by TechCrunch .
As commented on iPhone in Canada, it is logical to think that Apple will continue to make changes to the App Store search algorithm to try to improve the results more and more. It is clear that Apple wants to radically change its searches in the App Store. For example, in November they started showing results even with misspelled words ( misspelling ) because of proximity to well-spelled words, something that search engines like Google or Youtube have been doing for a long time.
Of course all these changes benefit, on the one hand, the smaller developers, who will have more visibility, and on the other hand, the users, since if the search algorithm improves we will be able to find applications that we didn’t even know existed before. What do you think about these changes?
