Simply surfing the apps is a highly impractical method of finding what you need. Apps With over 120,000 and climbing – with some predicting that the Apple Apps App Store could reach 300,000 in 2010, users have a desperate need for tools that can help identify applications that meet their needs or may be of interest to them.
Apple’s Genius feature for the App Store recommends apps that you might be interested in, but – despite its name – the algorithm is not very smart. The Apple Genius feature bases its recommendations purely on past app purchases you have made.
This approach has two critical limitations. First, because there is no test or test apps before purchase, many users purchase a wide variety of apps that they subsequently delete or never use. A purchase is a purchase, though, and those apps are reflected in the Genius recommendations. The second issue is that the Genius feature will not help if you are looking for an app for a specific purpose that does not fit the mold of your purchases before app.
A new app available through the Apple iTunes App Store promises to help users find the iPhone and iPod Touch apps to satisfy their needs and interests. Appsaurus provides more intelligent app recommendations than Apple’s recently introduced Genius feature.
Appsaurus tackles those issues by analyzing your needs more intelligently. Rather than only looking at past app purchases, Appsaurus “learns” about your interests and habits. To begin the process, Appsaurus presents you with lists of apps and you tap the ones you like and swipe away the ones you don’t like to “train” Appsaurus.
As you continue to train the app, Appsaurus “evolves” until it reaches the “All-Knowing” stage. Even then, though, Appsaurus continues to hone its understanding of what you like based on apps you choose or prohibition. .
Appsaurus also does more than just make app recommendations–it is dubbed “a thesaurus for apps”, offering a powerful search capability that is missing from the native App Store. You can browse the extensive inventory of Apple’s App Store based on keywords, or app price, or other criteria.
Variety is great, and it’s very impressive to have 120,000 apps going on 300,000. I expect that there will be many other app search tools and “thesauruses” following in Appsaurus’ footsteps, and that Apple itself will continue to improve the Genius feature to meet the needs of users.
For now, Appsaurus represents a must-have app, though, if you want a chance to be able to find the app needle in the App Store haystack.
