uQuery: A better search engine for the Apple App store

By Sharninder | Published: September 14, 2009

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

The Apple App store has truly revolutionized the business of mobile phone applications. It is often touted as a unique feature of the iPhone (and the iPod Touch) and is absolutely one of the best things to have happened to the developers developing applications for the platform.

For the end user, though, the App store can be a bit frustrating at times. There are a dozen or so categories and hundreds of applications available for download under each category. At last count, the store had over 65,000 applications competing with each other for a share of the (crowded) market.

iTunes, and it’s mobile counterpart, is used to search for and download applications for the App store. The problem is that with the limited search functions (and categorization) that iTunes provides, it is a nightmare for the users to actually sift through all the choices available and download that one application which’ll work for them.

uQuery aims to solve that very problem and make it easier for the end users to search the app store through an easy interface that (almost) reminds one of the simplicity of Google. And that in my books is a good thing.

To start searching for an application, just enter a few keywords into the text box and click Search. You’d notice that uQuery starts giving suggestions as soon as you enter the first few words of your search term.

The results page is divided into three columns with the 3rd column displaying recently added applications to the App Store. The second column is where the actual search result appear and the most interested column is the first column where you’ll find options to further customize your search.

Once you find an application that you’re interested in, click the link and uQuery will give you more detailed info about it including a short description, screenshots and a link that’ll let you download the application using iTunes.