Chomp is one of my favorite ‘app discovery ‘ apps “ as in, apps that help you find great apps. It lets you get recommendations from friends and ‘experts ‘ you choose to follow, and also makes it very easy and fun to add your own mini-reviews of apps.
It ‘s just had an update this week, to Version 2.0.0. Here ‘s what ‘s new:
Updated for iPhone 4 and iOS 4 with a completely new UI and new search functionality!
– New search lets you find apps based on the type of app you’re looking for, not just app name. For example, search for "astronomy", "concerts" or "shopping lists"
– Beautiful new high resolution UI (with high resolution images for the Retina display) that shows you the on-sale, new and recommended apps you’re looking for faster than ever
– Supports multi-tasking on compatible iOS 4 devices
The new UI is fresh and clean looking, and some of the new features look very good as well. I really like that the app ‘s Discover area now has a great range of sections that will help you find cool new apps quickly “ including Recommendations (based on what you ‘ve reviewed) People You Follow (see what the folks you follow are reviewing), On Sale, Recent Reviews, and What ‘s New. It ‘s as good a range of discovery options as I ‘ve seen in any app.
I also love that they ‘re trying to make their app search great, as TechCrunch reported on earlier this week:
Co-founder Ben Keighran calls this latest version of Chomp ‘the most personalized way to search and browse for apps. ‘ He notes that the addition of topic-based search is going to change the way people discover apps. ‘Imagine having to to go Google and search for ‘www.facebook.com ‘ ” rather than just searching for ‘social network ‘ and having Facebook come up as a result, ‘ is how he puts it.
He notes that previously beyond simple name searches results would show up based on popularity of the app. While this isn ‘t the worst way of doing it, Keighran believes the 50 million recommendations that users have already seeded into Chomp will provide a much better way. ‘We have a lot of data to build a semantic search engine, ‘ Keighran notes. ‘We have our own Chomp user sentiment. ‘
He also notes that they have more reviews in many cases than Apple itself does on apps. The reason is that Chomp makes it very easy to do a review ” you say whether you hate the app or love it. And if you want, you can leave a 60-word comment.
Keighran also says that Chomp ‘s system is better than Apple ‘s own Genius feature for apps because that ‘s simply based around what you ‘ve downloaded. This is all about what people you trust enough to add to your social graph have downloaded and love.
I agree with a lot of that, and I do tend to enjoy reading Chomp mini-reviews far more than any of the ratings posted in the App Store. I also love writing little bite-sized reviews (you ‘re limited to 60 characters) in Chomp.
I ‘ve played around a little with their search today, and though the results are mostly good there are still plenty of ropy ones as well. For instance, a search for ‘art ‘ showed some really oddball choices in its first 10 results “ like Lemonade Stand just to name one.
The TechCrunch post, not surprisingly, seems to have given Chomp a huge boost this week “ at least judging by the number of new follower emails I ‘ve been getting. Speaking of which, if any of you are Chompers, you can follow me on there if you like. I ‘m ‘patrickj ‘ in Chomp, and I ‘m fortunate enough to be in the ‘Suggested People ‘ section under the People tab.
Chomp was already a very good app reviews and recommendations app before this latest update; now it ‘s got a nice new look and some cool new features and functionality. Always good to see strong apps continuing to improve.
You can find Chomp in the App Store now, and it ‘s a free app.
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TAGS: Chomp, iphone apps
