It was last November that we first heard about Chomp, a sort-of Yelp for iPhone apps. At the time, it was still very much in stealth mode, but we kept hearing they raised a seed round of funding from investors like Ron Conway insanely fast. Obviously, we were interested.
By January, we had a sneak peak at the actual service. And about a week later, it formally launched as an app recommendation engine for Apple’s App Store. Another larger round of funding quickly followed, and since then Chomp has been off and running with over 400,000 active users at this point. But now it’s time to take things to the next level — with search.
App discovery in the App Store still basically sucks. There’s the main page which Apple’s curates (and does a nice job with). But beyond that it’s pretty much a nightmare. Discovery is continually under attack by developers trying to game the system by putting bogus words in their titles. And with over 250,000 iPhone apps out there now, there simply needs to be a better way to find the best ones.
Of course, that’s what Chomp has been doing. But up until now, they’ve basically only been doing it based on recommendations from your social graph on Chomp. Yes, there has been some basic search functionality, but it has been no better than the one Apple provides (again, pretty lousy). Today brings the launch of a completely revamped search engine for apps. And notably, it’s in both the Chomp app and on chomp.com.
Co-founder Ben Keighran calls this latest version of Chomp “the most personalized way to search and browse for apps.” He notes that the addition of topic-based search is going to change the way people discover apps. “Imagine having to to go Google and search for ‘www.facebook.com’ — rather than just searching for ‘social network’ and having Facebook come up as a result,” is how he puts it.
Competitors like Appsfire are out there also doing search, but they’re also mainly title (and description) based. In Keighran’s mind, this isn’t enough.
He notes that previously beyond simple name searches results would show up based on popularity of the app. While this isn’t the worst way of doing it, Keighran believes the 50 million recommendations that users have already seeded into Chomp will provide a much better way. “We have a lot of data to build a semantic search engine,” Keighran notes. “We have our own Chomp user sentiment.“
He also notes that they have more reviews in many cases than Apple itself does on apps. The reason is that Chomp makes it very easy to do a review — you say whether you hate the app or love it. And if you want, you can leave a 60-word comment.
Keighran also says that Chomp’s system is better than Apple’s own Genius feature for apps because that’s simply based around what you’ve downloaded. This is all about what people you trust enough to add to your social graph have downloaded and love.
All of this points towards Chomp’s larger goals: to be the place people go to find the best apps no matter what platform they’re on. Currently, Chomp only works for native iPhone apps and web apps for the iPhone, but Android and iPad app search/recommendation is in the works.
Keighran sees a future where apps are everywhere, and people need a single place to find the best of them. Yes, kind of like Google for the web. “This is like the web in 1996,” he says. If this future is realized, he envisions Chomp as having 10 million users by the end of next year. A lofty goal, but perhaps not an insane one.
And if they can get to that size, Keighran sees a lot of money to be made. Sponsored search and recommendations will be a huge business — again, at scale. For now, Chomp is making a small amount of money via affiliate fees from Apple every time someone buys an app by way of Chomp.
So what does Apple think about Chomp one-upping them in app discovery? “Apple is insanely excited about this,” Keighran says. Undoubtedly Google is excited for Chomp to come to Android too. Because this is a very real problem across all platforms and one that’s only growing in size.
Here’s all you need to know…
Gavin Newsom is Nancy Pelosi’s nephew.
Nancy Pelosi’s son (Gavin Newsom’s cousin), Paul Pelosi, Jr., heads and advises many of the San Francisco level gov’t agencies and “foundations” (even holding the position of “Special Adviser on the Environment to the Director of the NASA Ames Research Center”) spending SF’s share of stimulus money on federally mandated and nearly fully stimulus funded environmental and algae biofuel projects. Which companies like Honeywell, Solazyme, Unilever, and a dozen or so other SF headquartered corporations and biofuel start-ups are benefiting from. Biofuel projects which were once headed by Obama’s Sec. of Energy, Steven Chu.
SF is desperately trying to become to the biofuel industry, what Houston is to the oil and gas industry. With the progressive’s push to shift America away from conventional energy…one begins to see the benefit of this new sought feather for the city of SF’s cap.
The only thing likely motivating Newsom’s comments is that SF didn’t receive more or all of CA’s share of stimulus. Once all of SF’s progressive elites have begun profiting off their biofuel “investments,” there will be more lobster and bj parties to be had. Win/win for Newsom any way you look at it.
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robert shumake
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It was last November that we first heard about Chomp, a sort-of Yelp for iPhone apps. At the time, it was still very much in stealth mode, but we kept hearing they raised a seed round of funding from investors like Ron Conway insanely fast. Obviously, we were interested.
By January, we had a sneak peak at the actual service. And about a week later, it formally launched as an app recommendation engine for Apple’s App Store. Another larger round of funding quickly followed, and since then Chomp has been off and running with over 400,000 active users at this point. But now it’s time to take things to the next level — with search.
App discovery in the App Store still basically sucks. There’s the main page which Apple’s curates (and does a nice job with). But beyond that it’s pretty much a nightmare. Discovery is continually under attack by developers trying to game the system by putting bogus words in their titles. And with over 250,000 iPhone apps out there now, there simply needs to be a better way to find the best ones.
Of course, that’s what Chomp has been doing. But up until now, they’ve basically only been doing it based on recommendations from your social graph on Chomp. Yes, there has been some basic search functionality, but it has been no better than the one Apple provides (again, pretty lousy). Today brings the launch of a completely revamped search engine for apps. And notably, it’s in both the Chomp app and on chomp.com.
Co-founder Ben Keighran calls this latest version of Chomp “the most personalized way to search and browse for apps.” He notes that the addition of topic-based search is going to change the way people discover apps. “Imagine having to to go Google and search for ‘www.facebook.com’ — rather than just searching for ‘social network’ and having Facebook come up as a result,” is how he puts it.
Competitors like Appsfire are out there also doing search, but they’re also mainly title (and description) based. In Keighran’s mind, this isn’t enough.
He notes that previously beyond simple name searches results would show up based on popularity of the app. While this isn’t the worst way of doing it, Keighran believes the 50 million recommendations that users have already seeded into Chomp will provide a much better way. “We have a lot of data to build a semantic search engine,” Keighran notes. “We have our own Chomp user sentiment.“
He also notes that they have more reviews in many cases than Apple itself does on apps. The reason is that Chomp makes it very easy to do a review — you say whether you hate the app or love it. And if you want, you can leave a 60-word comment.
Keighran also says that Chomp’s system is better than Apple’s own Genius feature for apps because that’s simply based around what you’ve downloaded. This is all about what people you trust enough to add to your social graph have downloaded and love.
All of this points towards Chomp’s larger goals: to be the place people go to find the best apps no matter what platform they’re on. Currently, Chomp only works for native iPhone apps and web apps for the iPhone, but Android and iPad app search/recommendation is in the works.
Keighran sees a future where apps are everywhere, and people need a single place to find the best of them. Yes, kind of like Google for the web. “This is like the web in 1996,” he says. If this future is realized, he envisions Chomp as having 10 million users by the end of next year. A lofty goal, but perhaps not an insane one.
And if they can get to that size, Keighran sees a lot of money to be made. Sponsored search and recommendations will be a huge business — again, at scale. For now, Chomp is making a small amount of money via affiliate fees from Apple every time someone buys an app by way of Chomp.
So what does Apple think about Chomp one-upping them in app discovery? “Apple is insanely excited about this,” Keighran says. Undoubtedly Google is excited for Chomp to come to Android too. Because this is a very real problem across all platforms and one that’s only growing in size.
Here’s all you need to know…
Gavin Newsom is Nancy Pelosi’s nephew.
Nancy Pelosi’s son (Gavin Newsom’s cousin), Paul Pelosi, Jr., heads and advises many of the San Francisco level gov’t agencies and “foundations” (even holding the position of “Special Adviser on the Environment to the Director of the NASA Ames Research Center”) spending SF’s share of stimulus money on federally mandated and nearly fully stimulus funded environmental and algae biofuel projects. Which companies like Honeywell, Solazyme, Unilever, and a dozen or so other SF headquartered corporations and biofuel start-ups are benefiting from. Biofuel projects which were once headed by Obama’s Sec. of Energy, Steven Chu.
SF is desperately trying to become to the biofuel industry, what Houston is to the oil and gas industry. With the progressive’s push to shift America away from conventional energy…one begins to see the benefit of this new sought feather for the city of SF’s cap.
The only thing likely motivating Newsom’s comments is that SF didn’t receive more or all of CA’s share of stimulus. Once all of SF’s progressive elites have begun profiting off their biofuel “investments,” there will be more lobster and bj parties to be had. Win/win for Newsom any way you look at it.
robert shumake
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Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 announced and previewed: Digital <b>...</b>
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 announced and previewed: Photokina 2010: Panasonic has announced the DMC-GH2 Micro Four Thirds camera. The successor to the GH1 continues with its 'hybrid' stills/video philosophy but adds a host of tweaks and ...
Ricoh releases A12 28mm equiv. GXR module: Digital Photography Review
Ricoh releases A12 28mm equiv. GXR module: Photokina 2010: Ricoh has announced the GR Lens A12 28 mm F2.5 prime lens module for its GXR system. According to the company, the addition of 'GR Lens' in the module's name indicates that it ...
robert shumake
More Fallout Online art dribbles out MMO <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our MMO news of More Fallout Online art dribbles out.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 announced and previewed: Digital <b>...</b>
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 announced and previewed: Photokina 2010: Panasonic has announced the DMC-GH2 Micro Four Thirds camera. The successor to the GH1 continues with its 'hybrid' stills/video philosophy but adds a host of tweaks and ...
Ricoh releases A12 28mm equiv. GXR module: Digital Photography Review
Ricoh releases A12 28mm equiv. GXR module: Photokina 2010: Ricoh has announced the GR Lens A12 28 mm F2.5 prime lens module for its GXR system. According to the company, the addition of 'GR Lens' in the module's name indicates that it ...
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