When you look for an app in the Play Store, you first have to look past all the advertisements and questionable recommendations that ask for your attention. It’s just like Kruidvat.
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Play Store advertising: too much Kruidvat, too little curation
When you search for an app in the Play Store, Google does its best to let you download other apps as well. Logical, except that it is done in a garish manner full of advertising and junk.
It reminds me a lot of Kruidvat. I usually go there, just like the Play Store, for a specific purpose, but you first have to squeeze through packed and slightly too cramped corridors in which you are bombarded on all sides with advertisements and offers. It is a concept that works for Kruidvat, but is that also the image you want as the official app store of the world’s most used mobile operating system?
Mediocre apps
It seems to me that Google wants users to have a great experience with Android. This would mean, among other things, that they should be able to easily find the best apps. But if you search for a new game, for example, you will be bombarded with mediocre clones that were created to show you as much advertising as possible.
Google would help a lot of people if more games and apps were selected by an editorial team that are really worthwhile. That selection must not only be made from a commercial point of view, but with the quality of the games and other apps paramount.
The European Union requires Google to give its own apps less prominence in the Play Store. For example, Google apps are no longer always at the top when you search. Yet Google makes high-quality applications that deserve a place on your smartphone. These apps would naturally stand out more if users didn’t have to go through the mess first.
Lots of advertising
It is now mainly advertisements that have the upper hand. Even the headings ‘Suggested for you’ say ‘sponsored’. As a result, you can never be sure whether an app is recommended because it is really useful to you, or because the makers paid for that spot.
You also have to go through more and more advertisements in the search results. For example, if you search for ‘Calendar’, the top result is a sponsored calendar app. This is followed by one normal application, followed by a series of sponsored apps. Then our results even showed a temporary event from Storytel (which does not say ‘sponsored’, but which also has nothing to do with the search query).
At Kruidvat, the loudness, the advertisements and the complete overstimulation work well, because it tempts people to buy more than they initially wanted. Before you get to that muscle ointment you came for, you’ve already had deodorant, anti-wrinkle cream and a box of LEGO in your hands. Nowadays, good apps in the Play Store are, like that muscle ointment, too well hidden, and that should be better.
App tips
That every disadvantage also has an advantage is evident from the fact that we as Android Planet can play a role in telling you which apps are worth your time. So read the latest editions of our app tips below.
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