I had a similar experience with my app, Tea, which I commented about when all of us were learning of the algorithm change [1]. I noted that sorting results by popularity alone yields a poor experience and causes customer confusion. I hoped that Apple knew this and would recalibrate the results over time. It looks like they did.

Prior to the change, my app was the top result for the search term "Tea." Immediately after the change my app was the sixtieth result. Today it's at the third spot, behind Starbucks and Teavana, both free apps [2]. What happened? I'm guessing that the algorithm learned that some people who searched Tea were in fact looking for my app, went down in the search results and chose it. Only by noticing this behavior was the algorithm able to determine that the app was not a name squatter. It's very possible that the same thing will happen to Barnard's app over time.

1) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4153918 2) http://cl.ly/1J1F1e352b1E1y3h1S1K