Google Search for mobile now includes mobile app results

Wednesday, June 2, 2010 | 3:26 PM

As mobile apps continue to proliferate in stores like Android Market and the iPhone App Store, finding relevant information on the web about these apps is becoming more important to help you decide which apps to download. In addition to helping you find the mobile app information you’re looking for, Google Search for mobile now also makes it easier for you to get the actual apps themselves while you’re searching.

As of today, if you go to Google.com on your iPhone or Android-powered device and search for an app, we’ll show special links and content at the top of the search results. You can tap these links to go directly to the app’s Android Market or iPhone App Store page. You can also get a quick look at some of the app’s basic details including the price, rating, and publisher. These results will appear when your search pertains to a mobile application and relevant, well-rated apps are found. For example, try searching for download shazam on your Android-powered device or bank of america app on your iPhone.

Mobile app search results are available today in the US, with other countries and devices planned for the future.


18 comments:

Unknown said...

Awesome! I use AppBrain to find most of my apps, but using Google search is an awesome way to do it.

Glenn Brooks said...

Seems like just typing the app name is not enough. You also need to add "download" or "app" or something like that. So, this is definitely less useful than it could be.

csuwldcat said...

Couldn't agree with this approach more. On a related note, any chance you'll support/index extension link tags when Mozilla implements support for them...?

http://mozillalabs.com/jetpack/2010/05/12/indexing-and-auto-detecting-browser-extensions-on-the-web/

Stevos said...

This sounds like a great idea, but doesn't seem to be working on my 2.1 phone. Maybe it's a teething problem connected with my custom ROM or something.

My first thought was that it might be filtering apps that I can't obtain (for whatever reason), but Shazam, and a lot of the other apps I tested it on show in the market client directly, but so far no links in the search results.

Incidentally, is there going to be an effort to remove search results that are incompatible with the handset (eg. wrong API level target), and will the deeper content about apps (and purposes of the apps) be indexed to allow for broader searches (ie. "app to recognise music", "streaming music app", "3d browser app" etc)? Both these features would make the search more powerful and useful.

Jackknife said...

I looked for our iPhone app several different ways ("stubsearch app", "stubsearch download", "stubsearch tickets")and it's not appearing yet. Maybe they are still working out the kinks. Jerks ;)

Curt said...

Just a small test but the search results between mobile and <a href="www.hard-core-ware.com/images/googlemapapptest-lrg.jpg>PC don't seem to match.
</a> :)

The plus side was that the voice recognition was spot on.

- Curt

Curt said...

Just a small test but the search results between mobile and <a href="http://www.hard-core-ware.com/images/googlemapapptest-lrg.jpg>PC don't seem to match.
</a> :)

The plus side was that the voice recognition was spot on.

- Curt

Telmo Pimentel Mota said...

It would be great if Java ME applications were also available. There are open application stores, like GetJar, that can be indexed as well.

Unknown said...

For iPhone apps at least, http://www.appexplorer.com/ seems more useful.

Apploy said...

I just noticed "Panzer Panic" featured in Marketplace on my Nexus One, so I figured I would search for it. No luck getting the link, not with "app" or with "download" or with "android" or all three added. Needs work, folks.

Unknown said...

I wish I had an Android phone. They seems to be able to do almost anything!

Ali said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

Ali said...

Just posted a summary on my blog @ http://www.technobuffalo.com/mobility/search-for-iphone-apps-via-google/

and tweeted @ http://twitter.com/mobilityblog

Unknown said...

The question is how well are the reviews if they're coming from Google? I rather use a neutral site like RawApps

Familia - Padilla said...

Google where is the Palm APPs? Don't tell me that once again you are forgetting the little guys who have helped make you so LARGE.. Oh Well Bing here we all come....

Unknown said...

Please don't forget the Palm App Catalog!

Unknown said...

Please dont forget symbian? Its upsetting that no one releases stuff for the most popular phone operating system... Nokia still make phones ya know.

Nadav Gur said...

How about BlackBerry? that's the platform where there's the biggest App Store vacuum?