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Another thread of complaints is building up over at support forums at Google. In the latest market update, Google’s removed the “Just In” category which developers say helped spotlight new applications from smaller developers. Their complaint is that bigger developers already get enough recognition in the Android market and that the “NEW” section for paid apps and free apps don’t tailor to small-time developers at all.
As a direct result, developers have reported diminished sales and downloads. It’s such a subtle change from the outside looking in, but developers obviously relied on this to help build userbase for their new applications starting out.
Are you a developer? And if you are, is this affecting your sales? Do you wish Google would put it back in or do you think people just need to find more ways to report their wares? Let us know below! [Google 1|2, Thanks Mark!]
[polldaddy poll=5422468]
Doesn’t the ‘trending’ section kinda replace this? https://market.android.com/details?id=apps_movers_shakers
No, because those could be apps that were added a few months ago, or even a few years ago.
There is a new trending and newer apps tab??
Absolutely terrible idea to remove the “Just In” section. It was really the best way to find new games and apps. It did help developers a lot when the release a new app or game. I put off getting the market update until it was pushed onto my devices. I think this is the first time I didn’t want an update.
No idea what Google was thinking when they removed it.
While I am a bit dismayed at this, I think developers are just freaked out because they are unsure how to “game the system.” In the past, it was pretty much common knowledge that your app had to go 10-14 days between updates in order for it to reappear in the “Just In” category. So, developers (I admit, myself included) could time quick, small, often times insignificant updates to their apps in order to increase visibility. You would see this most often with the so called “app spammers.” It became a nuisance, especially when a user goes looking for new apps. They would be presented with an onslaught of basically crap! And, those of us who have quality apps out there would get pushed down in the “Just In” listings because of this.
I’ll be watching these new trending/newer apps categories to see how they function and if they maintain a happy balance between big time players and indies. Hopefully that will be the case.
Oh, and yes, since roughly early to mid June, my sales have noticeably declined.
As a developer and consumer, I also had some negative opinions about it being removed but looking at some of your comments, in hindsight, it was a good move for all the reasons you guys have mentioned.
I mean the “just in” section was filled with crappy apps anyway…
No. All apps that ever make it big obviously started in the “Just in” section.
Buried under a pile of crappy apps …
Exactly. This will have the effect of lessening upward mobility. Things will become more extreme, the popular staying popular and getting more popular. I see a lot of people commenting that they only want to see the “good apps” which is understandable. Although, what if you went back in time 2-3 years ago before a lot of these apps existed or were just starting out, and said you’re only interested in the good apps, the popular apps at the time. You see what I mean?
The problem with the Just In section was that it largely had spam applications with no decent content. So even your small-time developers got lost in the useless apps filling that section. They need to build in a qualifier for developers, regardless of size, that could filter out the garbage soundboard applications, etc.
Agreed, not to mention the fact that anyone can put any game/app in any category they want with absolutely no oversight or verification on the Google side. If I publish a new release of my game to the Card Games category in the morning, it’ll be bumped down 10 pages by noon by “Sexy Girl Wallpaper XYZ” intentionally miscategorized spam apps.
I like it cause it was named after me
I do better having more relevant keywords in my description. Just my thoughts…
the section where I looked the most….put it back in!
QFT.
I know what I’m going to find in the “most popular” section, the same crap. I want to know who’s trying to get into the game, not who’s already dominating.
Also people seem to be forgetting that nobody was forcing them to look at the “just in” section. If they felt it was full of crap, fine but obviously many people found it useful. There are many categories and lists I don’t care to look through, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t exist.
There is a top new paid and a top new free section in the market. I’m not sure what all the fuss is about.
I didn’t know about this. I don’t have the new market yet. i had to borrow my friends nexus to check it out. There is a top new paid and a top new free section. If these truly are “new” apps then I think the Just In section is completely worthless and it should be removed.
This is google becoming more like every other company. Do no evil is turning into whatever turns a profit.
I haven’t looked at that section in years. I discover new apps through blogs and podcasts.
So do I, but I always tought that they’re learning about what’s new from that exact feature. Maybe someone here at phandroid could tell us if it’s the case.
i dont trust just in section any way. if your app is clean, go advertise it on XDA.
for a company which made its money on being a search engine theyre not very good at making it easy to find stuff are they?? lol. the search is still quite basic on the market. the just in section was quite usefull for seeing what was new, even if a lot of it was spam. why cant we search for something then have more sorting and filtering features? such as sort by date, popularity, free or paid, size, keywords, genre. theres nothing at all. we’re just basically given a huge list and have to trawl through it and hope we find what we want.
You guys should just add a weekly feature on this. Google does random stuff without telling anyone and pisses off developers. Not exactly news anymore. Google does not do communication or support or a lot of other things. Enjoy the roller coaster or get off at the next stop.
Every time I looked in that section, there would be like 25 horrible apps from the same 12 year old korean “dev” – each just a minor variation on the other (Blue! Red!). Or perhaps 20 different “soundboards,” all of which were stolen sounds/voices and looked totally shady (i.e. potential malware). After a while, I stopped looking altogether.
If developers want to be upset, they should be upset with the other devs who ruin the system and make it unusable.
Doesn’t affect me yet as I still have the old style market. No idea when the update’s finally going to kick in. Then again, it’s more comfortable browsing for new stuff from my desktop than on the phone itself.
I never have had the just in tab, its always been (for me at least) the recomended by t-mobile tab, and those apps all sucked anyway…
We have an App Announcement area on AndroidForums.com, Phandroid’s forum site.
We welcome all NON-SPAM developers to join us and get the word out on their apps.
http://androidforums.com/application-announcements/
Granted, we’re not the Market, but we’re not chopped liver either. ;)
Eh, not a big deal. I bet barely anyone actually used that section.
It was filled with spam apps, plus if there was an app I was interested in, but with no comments, I wouldn’t trust it.
I’m inclined to agree, but I also see where the idea is coming from. I’m more interested in how many people actually looked in there … it was always filled with bullshit, so naturally, I avoided it like the plague.
It’s already hard enough finding the better apps in the Market, looking through a seemingly ‘latest’ stream of stupid ‘cute asian girl’ apps and the like just to spot a possible gem? I’d rather not even bother.
I can see why they removed it. It’s not as popular of a section. As a developer I did really like that section because I don’t want to have to pay a boat load of money to advertise a free app. I like the Just In section because it usually poses almost as a beta for me. I get a handful of people to download it. I’m pretty sure that the section is used a lot more than you think because I get ridiculous downloads sometimes. I occasionally look through Just In section as well. All the top app section is the same and usually only sees a new app once a month or so. it’s actually pretty sad. Therefore I browse the Just In section for all those hidden apps that are actually quite amazing making its way onto the market. I understand that the Just In section might add too many features for the basic user and take up real estate room, but I personally liked it as a developer and app user.
This Just In section gave developers the opportunity to promote their app for people who were logged in the “just in” category at that moment. So, I dont agree that the apps who even were not updated with real content, do spam this “category”. I dont even know how else you can reach millions of people without seeing your app back in the “just in” category ? By updating your app, yust another small part of this millions of people will see at that moment your app and will may be buy it. So I think that Google by doing this action has taken away a very large opportunity for small developers who dont have that kind of monery to promote their application. This is totally the wrong direction, very good developers will soon STOP developing android apps and they are right to do that. A missed opportunity for Google.
Honestly, I don’t care about the developer in this case.
From a user perspective, this is horrible. I want to see what new apps are just came out. I lose the complete overview.
Also apps that wasn’t very satisfying before, or having a lot of bugs, can’t be seen iof there is a new version unless you have installed the app.
So an app can’t be “monitored”, new apps can’t be seen, and I can’t find out about new stuff. Great… :(