I Came, I Searched, I Installed

The browsing of applications, or apps, for different mobile platforms such as Android and iOS (the platform on iPads and iPhones), web browsers, or online tools can be utterly exasperating and seemingly endless. Trawling through free apps is one thing but when you are prepared to pay for an app then choosing can be even worse, leaving you wondering which is the best app for the job and whether the list you have is an exhaustive one. Who doesn’t know of the buyer’s remorse suffered the moment you stumble across a cheaper, better app that does all and more than the one you just spent £5 on. However, there is an answer to this problem of ‘app discovery’ in the form of dedicated app search engines. There are many sites out there which rate, review and list apps but most -much like the dedicated app stores/markets accessible through smartphones- have limited search functionality. Some of the more notable of these app search services include Chomp, Appsfire, Appolicious, Appbrain and Quixey.

By the most recent standards Appbrain is somewhat out-dated; restricted to only Android apps it offers title and description based searches with simple filtering by popularity, but little else. It does, however, have an android app all of its own. Appolicious, which is in association with Yahoo!, is similar to Appbrain in many ways except offers a more structured interface on the website and caters for iPhone and iPad apps as well under its pseudonym Androidapps. However, the switch between searching for Android and iOS apps is far from fluid. Like Appbrain, Appolicious also has a dedicated app but in contrast it is only for iOS devices. In a slight evolutionary step forward we have Appsfire, although still mostly title and description based it has more features than the previously mentioned search engines, boasting a slight social media aspect with its self-labelled Appsfire ‘community’. Two key features that stand out are the option to filter searches by paid or free apps and a nice feature which lists apps that used to be paid but are now free. The site is unfortunately only limited to iOS apps but, peculiarly, apps are available for both iOS and Android devices. The two services that stand out from the otherwise primitive pack are unquestionably Chomp and Quixey. They are both newer and more advanced in their searching techniques than their rivals and offer very useful services to both customer and developer.

Fresh from its beta stage Quixey promises to “revolutionise the search for mobile and web apps.” They aim to do this via their unique search technique which they label ‘Functional Search’. They believe functional search is both the future of, and exclusive to, app searching. The system used by most, if not all, other app search engines basically just searches the topic and description of an app and relates it to the search words to produce results. Functional search actually scans an app’s function in order to relate it to the search term, this allows the search term to be more specific and bring back more relevant results. When using Quixey you are just asked one simple question to start your search, “What do you want to do?” for which you may answer “Identify music”, the search engine then brings back related apps with the most relevant, according to their function, top of the list. In this example case of ‘identify music’, Quixey brings back Shazam and Soundhound as top results. Pleasingly the answer to ‘kill pigs with birds’ brings back Angry Birds as the top result.

A crucial facet for this new breed of app search engine is multi-platform searching; the bare minimum is to cover the two mobile platform heavyweights, iOS and Android, with extra points for anything over and above. Chomp meets these criteria with easy switching between Android and iOS but Quixey leaves it for dust offering Android and iOS together with a number of web, browser, and desktop apps, plus other mobile platforms as well. Using Quixey you can search for a photo editing app for your Android device, Firefox browser or even Mac desktop. If you wish to browse through apps for all platforms at the same time then Quixey offers this too, it is the default in fact.  Another essential search feature is being able to define whether you wish the app you’re searching for to be free. This is available on both Quixey and Chomp but unfortunately neither has the option to view apps that once were paid but now are free like Appsfire. Nevertheless Chomp does have a useful ‘On Sale’ section.

It seems that Chomp and Quixey will go head-to-head in the app search war, but with both services aiming to become the go to place for customers and developers when it comes to apps, there can only be one true winner. So far Chomp has the advantage in terms of history as it has been around since 2009 and consequently has been a product of evolution unlike Quixey’s revolution. Because of this it already boasts over 400,000 active users and a useful association with the Carphone Warehouse. Nonetheless Quixey’s revolutionary birth may well be the key to its success; it has features that are more than a couple of steps into Chomp’s future and the potential to corner the market before Chomp catches up. On the search front Quixey gives the unprecedented option to filter your search results by apps that have articles about them on certain sites, such as TechCrunch, or apps that integrate with certain tools, such as Flickr. This gives users the chance to do a little research or read reviews from multiple sources; it also open up the possibility of lucrative relationships with tech reviews sites or software makers. Quixey has also made significant progress in terms of reaching out to the developers as well as consumers with features like the customizable search plugin which allows anyone to put a Quixey search bar on their site and tweak it to match their needs. It is in a strong position to offer app developers a one-stop location to manage their apps and read customer feedback across multiple platforms.

The overview of the app search market shows a huge amount of options; wading through this quagmire options reveals that only few are worth bothering with. Quixey and Chomp are certainly highlights of the field, but at the moment it looks as though Quixey, with its advanced features and developer friendly setup, is the horse to back.