“Apple has changed its ranking algorithms for the App Store, shifting how applications make it to the top of the heap where they are more likely to pick up sales due to the extra visibility,” Josh Lowensohn reports for CNET.
The change, which was picked up on by third-party analytics providers like Flurry last week and passed on to blog Inside Mobile Apps, is said to add other factors to an application’s placement in the top sections of the App Store, besides raw download numbers alone,” Lowensohn reports.
“Citing several applications that made dramatic jumps without a major update–including Facebook, Netflix, and Pandora–the report suggests Apple is now weighing how often applications are used (once downloaded) by daily and monthly users to better signify their ranking,” Lowensohn reports. “Rival Google, the makers of the Android OS, and purveyors of the Android Market reportedly began the same practice earlier this month based on similar third-party findings.”
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