Today I reinstalled the CM rom on my phone and while I was upgrading my apps, a notification appeared on my phone making me upgrade Google Play Services.
I understand that it is a necessary app and all of that, but did you realized about the high punctuation it has in the Play Store? If you read the opinions, on the most useful section, they talk all about the same: "I can't upgrade this app because it is so big and now I can't use my phone" and all those people give between 1 and 3 stars, but the app has 3.7.
So I changed the section to "Newest first" and started reading opinions. There were a lot of then with comments like "P" or "nice" and 5 stars. If you also look the profile of those people who comment on that app, you can find profiles with any information, just a 5 stars punctuation on that app. And nothing more.
A screenshot of one of this profiles can be found here: nicovell3.es/playServices.png
I suppose these profiles are generated by Google workers to elevate the punctuation of that app, and I understand that they want it to have a good image to make people trust in downloading that app but... I'm not sure that's the correct way.
What I want to ask is: if Google controls in that way the Play Store and we continue trusting that company, what will prevent it from making us believe what they want?
I post this here because I think this must concern all the app developers which produce apps to post them in the Play Store...
Related
Why the apps having the worst users' reviews are shown as "Recommended Apps" ???
Hello,
How are the "Recommended Apps" selected by the Marketplace?
I am tired to see all the apps having actually the worst users' reviews be selected by Micorosoft and promoted on the Marketplace.
For instance, this week I see as recommended the games "Castlevana Puzzles" (rated only 1 star over 5) and "Deer Hunter" (rated only 1.5 star over 5) !!! Most reviews of these games state that they are not very good.
So therefore, by WHOM are they recommended ? I wonder. Not by the users for sure.
In my opinion the most important opinion is the customers' one.
MS, please stop 'recommending' apps that the users said they don't like.
How to find on the Marketplace only the apps that the USERS RECOMMEND (not MS), that is to say the ones with 3, 4 or 5 stars?
Thank you
I believe it is based on the number of downloads, which is a completely different metric from the ratings.
Jim Coleman said:
I believe it is based on the number of downloads, which is a completely different metric from the ratings.
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Click to collapse
I don't think so. My app appeared on the featured list once for a while and it only has <100 downloads to this date!
It looks to be fairly random to me.
Blade0rz said:
I don't think so. My app appeared on the featured list once for a while and it only has <100 downloads to this date!
It looks to be fairly random to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That'd be nice. Maybe if devs know that even crappy apps will be randomly "featured" they'll have a little pride and reduce apps that aren't so shoddy.
It's also nice because apps that might otherwise not be seen will get some time in the spotlight. Could be a big deal for someone - I know it would be for me.
Back in the WMP9 days I made a few skins that people liked for their simplicity (they were designed to be "always on top"). After MS featured them on a skins site and they got a high rating they amounted to about half of my site traffic.
A little free attention from MS can make a huge difference for a smalltime dev.
Bleak Morn said:
That'd be nice. Maybe if devs know that even crappy apps will be randomly "featured" they'll have a little pride and reduce apps that aren't so shoddy.
It's also nice because apps that might otherwise not be seen will get some time in the spotlight. Could be a big deal for someone - I know it would be for me.
Back in the WMP9 days I made a few skins that people liked for their simplicity (they were designed to be "always on top"). After MS featured them on a skins site and they got a high rating they amounted to about half of my site traffic.
A little free attention from MS can make a huge difference for a smalltime dev.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally understand your point of view.
Nonetheless, I would probably like/prefere to have an "Apps recommended by users". I mean the apps with the best feedback from the ones that really tested the apps. Indeed, number of download means nothing.
Strange that the Marketplace does not include this. It seems natural to me.
It would be good because:
- it will encourage developers to make good apps and get a high ranking,
- it will allow users to discover and install apps that have a positive feedback. It does not mean that a lot of people aready installed it. Maybe only one or two people only installed the app, found it very good. Thanks to its high ranking, the app will be discovered by other people.
Also, I do not think that apps such as Deer Hunter or Castlevania need to be promoted like they currently are on the Marketplace: firstly, they are mediocre Xlive games. Secondly, better to promote independant small developers that Xlive games developed by Microsoft. Microsoft do not really need to promote their own game, especially when they are not so good.
arturobandini said:
I totally understand your point of view.
Nonetheless, I would probably like/prefere to have an "Apps recommended by users". I mean the apps with the best feedback from the ones that really tested the apps. Indeed, number of download means nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Keep in mind, ratings can be gamed as well. One vote for 5-stars could result in a 5-star rating for a 1-star app.
A while back I had an issue with the Zune software - wanted to get a list of all of my songs based on whether or not they were ZunePass (DRM) songs, or MP3's I'd bought with my 10 monthly song credits. The idea was to use the credits on the songs I've listened to most but hadn't yet unlocked.
I was having getting the software to do what I want, so I asked how to do it in the Zune forums. When that didn't get the answer I wanted, I communicated with some Zune MVP's via Twitter. They connected me with one of the Zune application development leads at MS (also on Twitter) and I directed him to the article in the Zune forums where he helped me troubleshoot and fix the issue.
One of the things I like about MS is that when I poke around, they usually put me in touch with someone who can directly solve my problem (like the app dev lead).
In this case, he provided me with a simple work-around for the problem I was having, but if you need a new app feature it's nice to be able to tell the guy in charge directly.
Oh, and if you end up taking this approach I'd love it if you'd post the link to your Zune forums thread here so I can follow along since it's an issue I might encounter soon.
It will not be one of the versions that probably go down in history this 3.10.9, which takes the place of the previous 3.9.17, but, no matter how small, the innovations introduced are numerous and we're not sure appreciated them all.
We start from the section recommended for you. Whether it's app or books (advice on music yet they are not), or even if you are on the homepage of the store, blocking the slice with the Google personalized recommendations you'll notice that at the top there is a new voice, "improve these councils, "which allows us to add people you know to find out their tastes and also receive recommendations based on them (or so says the description of the function). Good theory, too bad that the vast majority of contacts proposed were complete strangers from the other side of the world, with which (we checked) we did not even vague contacts on Google+. We look forward to a future refinement.
Then continue with the translations. Some apps now have a button "translate" at their description, which basically will only call into question Google Translate on the fly to change the text in a language more understandable to us. In this case the theory is good, pity we did not understand when and when not to appear: comparing different applications, different languages, some of them had the button translate it and other were completely lacking. Also in this case we are confident in a future refinement.
If these two functions must be short andarsele a little 'to seek, we turn now to a thing you will see rather often. You will all familiar with the installation of new apps: you choose one, went on his page, click on install, accept the permissions and you will be thrown back to the description of the app while the progress bar will indicate the percentage of completion. Not any more. After accepting the permissions, and then return to the description of the app, you have inserted a new page, which you can see an example on the right. The aim is to highlight related app and installed by others, but the match as you know is not always the best, by clicking on "back to shopping" you will still be redirected to the description of the app to start. We did not find a way to disable this feature, which basically requires a tap in to install any new app. Annoying.
And finally we come to the last news, the only one on which we could hardly rely on something: it is now possible to remove items from the wish list by tapping on the icon in that list, without having to open a description of each app. It is the same method used to delete applications from the complete list of all the ones we have ever installed and certainly saves us a few more steps. Nicely done.
After then the description of the new features, I leave you the link to download the Play Store:http://d-h.st/ZZB
Thank you for the hint!
Thanks for letting us now
Sent from my GT-I9000
whats the difference with this one
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1996995
Already been postedf
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
Kameirus said:
whats the difference with this one
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1996995
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what seems the usual review?
but please ...
Closed
We already have a thread with same topic
It will not be one of the versions that probably go down in history this 3.10.9, which takes the place of the previous 3.9.17, but, no matter how small, the innovations introduced are numerous and we're not sure appreciated them all.
We start from the section recommended for you. Whether it's app or books (advice on music yet they are not), or even if you are on the homepage of the store, blocking the slice with the Google personalized recommendations you'll notice that at the top there is a new voice, "improve these councils, "which allows us to add people you know to find out their tastes and also receive recommendations based on them (or so says the description of the function). Good theory, too bad that the vast majority of contacts proposed were complete strangers from the other side of the world, with which (we checked) we did not even vague contacts on Google+. We look forward to a future refinement.
Then continue with the translations. Some apps now have a button "translate" at their description, which basically will only call into question Google Translate on the fly to change the text in a language more understandable to us. In this case the theory is good, pity we did not understand when and when not to appear: comparing different applications, different languages, some of them had the button translate it and other were completely lacking. Also in this case we are confident in a future refinement.
If these two functions must be short andarsele a little 'to seek, we turn now to a thing you will see rather often. You will all familiar with the installation of new apps: you choose one, went on his page, click on install, accept the permissions and you will be thrown back to the description of the app while the progress bar will indicate the percentage of completion. Not any more. After accepting the permissions, and then return to the description of the app, you have inserted a new page, which you can see an example on the right. The aim is to highlight related app and installed by others, but the match as you know is not always the best, by clicking on "back to shopping" you will still be redirected to the description of the app to start. We did not find a way to disable this feature, which basically requires a tap in to install any new app. Annoying.
And finally we come to the last news, the only one on which we could hardly rely on something: it is now possible to remove items from the wish list by tapping on the icon in that list, without having to open a description of each app. It is the same method used to delete applications from the complete list of all the ones we have ever installed and certainly saves us a few more steps. Nicely done.
After then the description of the new features, I leave you the link to download the Play Store:http://d-h.st/ZZB
Thanks, i was just reading about it in the main android themes and apps forum :laugh:
Bluehood (search Play store for bluehood) is a very cool application to get to know new people around you. In Bluehood people connects to each other, they make new friends, chat or even flirt. For example, if you see somebody interesting around you, in Bluehood you can see his/her friendship status: single, in a relationship or married. You can even see contact details like phone number, mail, instant messaging id or Facebook page if allowed. If not allowed, then you can start chatting and make your luck.
Take social networking to a new level and unleash the power and functionality of Bluetooth in your device!
This is a new application so, in order to find as many people as possible in Bluehood, please share it with your friends.
To see how you can win a Nexus 7 please see Bluehood facebook page: www.facebook.com/mobile.bluehood
new version
In version 1.04 you can send smilies to people around you!
10-50 installs so far
ncc74656 said:
10-50 installs so far
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, the app is just 7 days old and the Play store is a huge collection of apps, it is very difficult for a new app to become visible. Play is, maybe, the only store that does not have a "New apps" section, I think that Google has a reason for that
In version 1.05 you can let someone around you know that you like her/him at a touch of a button!
Ok you put time and effort into your games or apps but still cant seem to get downloads. You might even see a game or app similar to yours but for some reason they are charting but your not. There are over 100,000 developers and over a million apps on googleplay. What are they doing that your not?
1) Website- I see a lot of developers that have a single blog page for all their apps. Look at the format of google play and match your website as close as you can to what google play has. Why? Customers are use to a certain format and like things that look familiar . Think like a customer when building a website and put the same effort as you were in programming your apps.
2)Social Networking-Make a twitter and facebook account. Any app release you have or updates post them.You can even interact with customers and get feedback directly from them. Use this as a tool to learn from real people and adjust your game or app based on feedback.
3)Make Niche Apps- There is no way indie developers can match the power of big companies. Rather than try to take on gameloft or EA focus on niche apps. Small apps like car locators or how to cook books. Small apps like these have been know to get more downloads vs making a game going against a bigger company. Small focused apps or simple games with great graphics can draw people to your app.
4)Post in Forums- Post your game or app in several forums. Be careful as many forums are not really indie friendly. Most forums have a section where you can post games or apps away from where regular forum users cant see. Also you might run into jealous developers who have nothing better to do then degrade your game. Post in several forums to bring in users but remember this is only a small part of your marketing efforts. This forums is very developer friendly though.
5)Rate Me Button- In your apps your should have a rate me button and a googleplay button that points to only your apps in google play. You can also have a button to your website to give the customer a more personal touch.
6) Paid vs. Free- I would suggest you make 4 to 5 free apps before making a paid app. Most customers do not want to pay and only enjoy free apps. You can make a paid version but be warned if you make a paid version users might
1) uninstall the free version
2)buy the paid version
3)refund the paid version but keep the apk on thier device
4) Now they have the paid version for free.
I will make another how to market your android apps part 2 soon. Till then good luck with your games and apps.
These are helpful tips seeing as me and a friend just released our first app a month ago, thanks!
yoshihat said:
These are helpful tips seeing as me and a friend just released our first app a month ago, thanks!
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Click to collapse
Your welcome hope your friends apps does well