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Comment by colechristensen

13 hours ago

I get it but... well I think of App Store as... a store. I don't have to go there.

I'm actually pretty disappointed in the lack of discovery available in the App Store, but I rarely go there. I'm fine with advertising being there. I wish it was better but I'm not offended that there is paid promotion in a store.

13 comments

colechristensen

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DaedalusII  12 hours ago

>get letter from bank

>"to fix this, please install our app"

>search BankName

>comes up with other banks, BankNames US app (not the country you are in)

>revolut etc (cant use in the country you are in)

>ten minutes later

even worse when its your telecomm telling you to install their Official App so you can pay your bills or they will cut your cellular service, and you cant find it

  • Someone  9 hours ago

    I don’t see what that has to do with (increased) advertising on the App Store (IMO search there never has been good) or the comment you replied to in which colechristensen said: “I'm actually pretty disappointed in the lack of discovery available”.

    I think paid advertising may even help improve discoverability on the App Store because, instead of making 10 or 20 to do list apps and hoping to get them to rank high by a combination of sheer luck and SEO tricks, scammers may only make one, and pay to get that to the top of the list.

    In super markets product placement is affected by two factors: how much producers are willing to pay for a good spot (e.g. by offering lower wholesale prices if the product gets a more visible place) and vetting by the store owner.

    I don’t think different solutions exist in the App Store. Apple doesn’t want to do much vetting, making advertising the only thing that may help (and yes, it would be awesome if there were a store that did do much vetting, but that requires a world where many different stores exist, and we aren’t there (yet))

    • TheDong  7 hours ago

      > I think paid advertising may even help improve discoverability on the App Store

      So my grandmother searching "Powerpoint" and getting malware instead of the microsoft app is good actually?

      Let me compare some search terms and see if ads are giving me "better" results:

      * ublock - surfshark vpn

      * wordle - spammy adware word game

      * slack - spammy adware game

      * microsoft word - spammy spyware office app (not the one made by MS)

      * every bank I could think of - different financial app

      Like, this isn't a good user experience. The ads aren't relevant, even when you type in a hyper-popular app's name exactly, something like 80% of the time a competitor has sniped the top spot.

      For the "microsoft word" search, the spam app had an identical logo to word, and I have no doubt many people have been fooled. If you look at the reviews, some of the 1 star reviews are detailed complaints, and all the 5 star reviews are inhuman sounding "This helped me do my job" and "great app" reviews.

      > I don’t think different solutions exist in the App Store

      Sorting roughly by popularity and reviews, and also doing a little more to combat fake reviews, seems like it would be better. It at least would mean that if I searched "bank name" my bank's app would come up, since for every bank I tried the first non-ad result was in fact the bank in question.

      It would save grandmothers around the world who just click on the first result.

      2 replies →

  • instalabsai  12 hours ago

    As someone who recently moved to NL from the US I encounter this issue about once a week and it’s blocking me from doing serious things like paying for parking, taxes, utilities or government services, all of which have apps that are only available on the Dutch app store.

    I have a separate Dutch Apple ID I can switch to, but each time I log out I risk accidentally deleting all my data.

    • matwood  9 hours ago

      > all of which have apps that are only available on the Dutch app store.

      This isn’t really on Apple though. Blame the companies/developers for geo gating their apps. It’s a simple checkbox in the store to make it available for other countries.

marcus_holmes  12 hours ago

Where do you install apps from then?

I get an app recommendation from a friend, I go to the App Store and search for it. I have to be super careful about which link I'm actually clicking on and which app I'm installing, because the App Store is riddled with spam and malware.

I wouldn't mind, except that Apple charge 30% of everything with the justification that they are keeping the ecosystem free of spam and malware...

  • anon7000  12 hours ago

    I’ve been installing apps from the App Store for more than a decade and have never ever accidentally downloaded spam or malware. I’m sure it’s there but it’s really not “riddled” with it in my experience searching for apps. What it’s riddled with is subscription-based apps whose free tier is worthless

  • rconti  11 hours ago

    I install a new app maybe once every 6 months. I agree that the app store is trash, littered with ads and casino games for kids.

    I just don't find it hard to find the app I want, when I want something specific, and install, and then _get the hell out of that shithole_.