Want to search for a new app? There’s now an app for that — from Yahoo.
On Wednesday, Yahoo unveiled Apps Search, an addition to its web site and a first for a major search engine. It also is launching a similar app for smartphones, called AppSpot, to search and install apps. Both Apps Search and AppSpot target apps that reside on Apple’s App Store or Google’s Android Market.
Yahoo Is Switzerland
At some point, Yahoo is planning to expand the capabilities of its search function and smartphone app to include apps for BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7, and other platforms, and possibly for tablets as well. Since the Mac computer now has a Mac App Store, essentially all applications are being described as apps, so potentially the universe could involve all applications for laptops, netbooks and desktops.
Yahoo is stepping into an opening it can fill, since it doesn’t offer a platform like the owners of the other two big search engines, Microsoft and Google. Of course, there’s nothing stopping Apple or Yahoo from upgrading their search tools, but at this moment in the smartphone wars Yahoo is a neutral Switzerland.
Yahoo Senior Vice President Shashi Seth told news media that his company’s search logs indicated users are increasingly using and searching for apps, so “it was time to integrate apps into our search products.”
Yahoo’s role is to be the middleman. The actual purchase and downloading will take place in the app stores of Apple, Google or other platforms. Apple reportedly will pay Yahoo a five percent fee for sales resulting from its search. It’s not clear what, if any, cut Google will provide.
‘An Important Step’
Yahoo won’t run its advertising on app search results, as it and other search engines do for other results. A user will be able to buy and…
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