Speed and search.

The app stores have always been web based sites. For all of Safari’s touted improvements to speed however, the interface to Apple’s stores have always been slow – way too slow. Especially on iOS. A focus on the customer experience does not mean removing third-party apps that provide a better store experience than yours. It means making those apps irrelevant by making the speed, responsiveness and search of your store vastly superior.

A search for the term “Camera Noir” on Google or Bing takes a fraction of a second. It also correctly returns the expected result of a direct link to the app in the App Store as the top hit. Google clocked its results at .28 seconds. The App Store took 12 seconds to return the same search term. Why is the web providing a superior experience over a native app?

Google also provided instant and relevant suggested searches below the text box. The App Store also provides instant, though questionably relevant suggested search terms. With the full term “Camera Noir” typed in, the suggested search still had seemingly random camera-related terms offered. An interesting side note: subsequent searches for the term “Camera Noir” were relatively faster (six seconds) and more relevant suggestions made (Camera Noir for camera noir for example). Search needs to be right the first time, not cached or trained for all those subsequent times you’ll be searching for that app you theoretically already downloaded.

Google is also able to correctly interpret misspellings such as “cmera noire”, whereas the iOS App Store app provides no suggested results, nor any result at all when searching for “cmera noire” or similar misspellings. Not even the infamous iOS autocorrect can assist here – no option or sub-text box suggesting to correct seemingly easy-to-guess words.

Without delving into unfamiliar territory, it’s suffice to say that developers also have their own issues with speed and search in the App Store. Released a great new app, for example? Great, it may take hours after being released to be returned in a search result, even if that search is for the exact title of your app.

The App Store has been a tremendous success and industry changing phenomenon, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement, no matter who you ask. Large, philosophical debates can be had over ideas like app discovery and pricing, but perfecting the basics of speed and search still have a long way to go.