Yahoo debuts app search tool

At this year’s GSMA Mobile Apps Briefing, Yahoo announced its AppSpot application which allows users to search the Apple App store and the Android Market for applications.

Yahoo announced its AppSpot app, which it said ‚works like a flashlight in the darkness of more than 425,000-plus apps in the Apple App Store and 200,000 apps in Android Market.‚ The free app, available in iOS and Android versions, uses ‚Yahoo’s powerful search technology‚ to enable consumers to locate products, and also delivers full descriptions, price, overall star ratings, and screen shots. However, in addition to providing an app search tool, AppSpot also delivers ‚daily, completely personalized recommendations of the iPhone and Android apps you should consider based on the apps you’ve downloaded.‚

The search giant said that finding the right app from ‚tens of thousands of possibilities‚ frequently requires multiple searches, downloads, and ‚general uncertainty about the quality of the app you download.‚ It said its solution enables customers to locate apps by showing matching app titles and keywords as they type: offers ‚related apps‚ recommendations: and provides direct links to apps within the App Store or Android Market to make purchases easy.

As the number of apps has increased rapidly both in the App Store and Android Market, discovery has become an issue for users ‚ especially as many app use names similar to competing products, and many apps deliver the same features as their rivals. While both stores already feature search capabilities, IDG News Service reports that Shashi Seth, Yahoo’s senior vice president of search, said that this is ‚good, but it’s not best-of-breed.‚ App searches were described as at a ‚rudimentary‚ stage, more like the Internet search tools of the ‚mid-1990s.‚

The app is currently available in the US market. Launch plans for other territories were not revealed.