Apple pushes its own stock iOS apps and features in App Store search results

Normally, when you search for an app on the App Store, you’d expect the apps in the results to be available on the App Store. But in what seems to be a recent change, Apple has also started showing its preinstalled system apps like Safari and Messages in the search result list. The results for these preinstalled apps are visually very different from the usual results. There are no screenshots, and instead there’s a huge icon with a short description for each app. Apple’s also showing system level features like iCloud and Siri in the results linking to an Apple webpage talking more about them. From MacStories: If you search for common terms like “web”, “SMS”, or “movies” in the iOS 7 App Store you’ll see special search results for Apple apps like Safari, Messages, and iTunes with a large icon, a description, and a link to learn more or open an app (such as Safari). These results appear on the App Store for iOS 7 devices (I wasn’t able to display them on a Mac using iTunes) and, in my tests, they also worked for queries like “browser”, “messages”, “cloud”, “internet”, “Siri”, and “text”. I’ve tried several other queries, but I couldn’t see results for other apps like Reminders, Calendars, Mail, Photos, Music, or Notes. While this might be good for users who haven’t yet discovered features like Siri or iCloud, it might raise some concern amongst third-party developers since Apple may begin to increasingly surface their own apps at the top of search results. Let us know what you think about this new addition to App Store’s search. Do you find it irritating that Apple’s showing you an app/feature that you already might know about in the search results, where you want to look for something new, or are you finding the new results helpful? Continue reading →

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