Do you really need another way to find apps for your iPhone or Android phone? Yahoo thinks that it can improve on the current systems. Indeed, Yahoo's AppSpot apps, and perhaps even more so, the Yahoo App Search sub-site do offer some help over the native tools when it comes to picking just that right program. Considering that the iTunes App Store now boasts over 425,000 choices and the Android Market over 200,000, any help wading through this huge pile of software is welcome. But you won't get help for the tablet versions of these OSes, nor for Windows Phone 7. I tested the free AppSpot on an iPhone 3GS and a Samsung Galaxy S Android phone. Read on to see how helpful Yahoo's app helpers were.
Signup and Setup
First you'll need to find and install this "meta-app" the old fashioned way, using the search tools built into the iTunes App Store and the Android Market. At first run, I had to okay the typical request to use my location info. Another less common request was that I let AppSpot see my app information so that it could recommend picks. Fortunately, you don't have to sign into a Yahoo or any other account to use AppSpot.
Interface
When you start up Yahoo AppSpot, the owl on its home page stares at you for a while while it's "Getting today's picks for you!" This preliminary step sometimes takes longer than I'd like to wait to start up an app. The home view shows three apps' thumbnails with ratings in vertical categories; I could scroll sideways to see more categories, or up and down to see more apps in each category. In all, there were 20 categories, including entertainment, books, utilities, and social networking. Clicking on a suggested app's thumbnail brought up its detail page, which showed its price (something that would have been good to see on the first page), App Store link, screenshots, a description, and a "more apps you'll [heart]" choice.
One thing missing here was user comments, which you can plainly read for any app in the iOS App Store. Also, the suggestions for me weren't too relevant: Stats for Halo Reach? Breathing Girl mouth to mouth CPR practice? Nothing in my installed apps could possibly have inspired these. And under Lifestyle, Target, Old Navy, and Toys R Us were suggested, which seemed like simple marketing tie-ins rather than anything relating to my lifestyle. One relevant app Yahoo AppSpot did propose, however, was Word Scramble, which is clearly based on my Words with Friends and Lexitron apps. If that free app gives me a few hours of amusement, it will be enough to justify my installing AppSpot. (And since this Zynga game is basically a version of Boggle, which I love, there's a good chance it will.)
On the Desktop
Possibly more useful is AppSpot's companion service, Yahoo App Search for the desktop browser. This offers similar app-finding tools, but in the more spacious environs of the desktop (or laptop). Up top is the main switch links for iPhone or Android, and in the center you'll see a large, clearly laid out rotating entry for apps in the selected category. Below this are sections for top free, paid, and highest-rated apps.
When you search on an app name, you'll see a list clearly displaying each found apps price, rating, and description. You can sort it by relevance or rating, but not by release date, as you can in the iOS App Store. Each app gets a full page showing full-size screens, full description including a Yahoo review summary with pros and cons, and other related apps. Once you click on the price button, though, you see the real reason to get the Y! AppSpot app on your phone?a QR code takes you right to the app download page in the App Store if you scan it with your iPhone. I also successfully tried the process on a Samsung Galaxy S Android phone.
On the phones themselves, the Y! AppSpot doesn't seem to have a huge advantage over the built-in app store interfaces. But the new desktop browser app search feature in Yahoo is definitely an easier way to locate an appropriate app or to discover new ones that suit your desires. It's also a capability where Yahoo is actually leading, with Bing and Google not yet offering this kind of tailored app searching. Bing has video game-specific search, and the Bing for iPhone (Free, 3.5 stars) has an app autodiscovery feature, but it's a far cry from Yahoo's explicit, rich app-finding interface.
Do You Need Another Way to Find Apps?
Sure, you could just use the iTunes App Store or Android Market's built-in tools for finding apps, but Yahoo's apps and site feature add two important benefits: their recommendations actually can find you stuff you like, as it did for me. Second, searching for an app on the desktop makes for a better experience than doing so in the confines of the small screen, and the use of QR codes by that site that can be used by the mobile apps makes that Web interface all the more compelling. Do you need Yahoo AppSpot? Not really. You can do pretty well with the app store's built in tools. But if you're a real app aficionado, it's worth giving a whirl.
Read more search reviews on PCMag:
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