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Comment by zrgiu_ | Hacker News Reader

still does. Try searching for something relevant, see where an app with that exact name is placed.

    Example: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=child+books&c=apps

The app named "Child Books" comes after coloring book, Nook, WebMD and many others. It's just that popularity matters MUCH much more than what you actually search for, and it takes days from the moment of getting popular (Google Maps style) to the moment when the algorithms start noticing.

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A better way to search for an app called "child books" would be to use quotes around it.[1]

But I agree, Google Play's search can still be improved. Currently a search for GTA vice city [2] places the actual game in third place behind other related apps. These apps are The important thing to note is that both these apps have 100,000+ downloads while the game is <50,000 right now. So the number of downloads is given a higher weight than name (as it should be.) But the actual game should get a better rank than other things. As time goes on and more sites link to the game and more people download it, this will improve.

[1]: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=%22child+books%22&... [2]: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=gta+vice+city&c=a...

> Currently a search for GTA vice city [2] places the actual game in third place behind other related apps.

Looks like that's already changed in the last 3 hours. Now shows up in first place for me.

Third place is currently some ripoff scam app, which is another problem. (Is there any way to report clear ripoff/spam apps from the web storefront? Had to into Google Play to report "objectionable content", which was the closest I could find to a fraud report.)

In that case it isn't clear why an app named "child books" should be on top. It's a very generic name.

Right. The reason they can't do that is because people can easily game the system by just naming their apps popular search terms.

It's the same reason simply owning 'thing.com' doesn't make it your rite to be ranked #1 in google for 'thing'.

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