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2012

Facebook App Dashboard Updates Brings Keyword Search To App Center

November 2, 2012 0

Los Angeles – To be honest, most app marketplaces seem to be a black hole for apps that do not make it into the “top” lists. And surprisingly though, it has been a while since Facebook has posted a hefty Operation Developer Love post, but salvation came this week. The social networking giant Facebook announced several updates to its app dashboard on the developer side, as well as rolling out search for App Center, allowing users to not only find apps by name but also by keyword such as “cars” or “fitness.”

The company disclosed the new feature on its developer blog today, saying any app “detail page” will be listed in the marketplace. But now a lot has changed, developers would not need to change or do anything to make sure their app is listed, Facebook is taking care of all the integration on its side.

Currently, when you are in the App Center, there is no surefire way to “find” an app that your friends are playing or that you want to install. You have to either search through the top apps, browse through the ones your friends are using, or glance at each of the different genres that are available. And to make matters more complicated, you have to deal with whether it is a mobile or web app.

In order to help assuage this friction, Facebook has now introduced a search bar that will allow you to find the apps you need based on specific keywords, such as “cars”, “poker”, and “fitness” – everything you might come to expect from a search engine. This will be in addition to the existing ways you can find apps, such as through personalized recommendations, lists of top apps, and the category filters.

In fact, this alteration will help users better navigate App Center, which previously offered filters by category but no direct search. The app dashboard now supports transparent icons, offers promotion of applications via sponsored results, and made it easier for developers to enter their company information.

Here are more details from a post on Facebook’s developer blog:

“We are beginning to roll out keyword search in the app center. All listed app detail pages will be included in our search index, and no changes are necessary for developers.”

Previously, the main search bar in the Facebook header was not always beneficial, either, since it searches people, pages, places, groups and everything else on Facebook. In addition, it does not yet offer keyword search. If users do not know the title of what they are looking for, it is not very helpful.

Furthermore, the updates to ads, Facebook now offers support for transparent icons. The social network says that icons uploaded in PNG format now supports alpha transparency. It is not retroactive so developers will have to upload new icons to take advantage of the feature.

Besides, developers who already have apps on Facebook will not be affected with this update, as Facebook says that all listed app detail pages will be included in the search index. App Center was officially opened in June and later extended to everyone around the globe in August. It attracts 220 million people to the marketplace per month. Overall, Facebook has over one billion users. The App Center marketplace serves as a way for Facebook to push out both online and mobile apps. It does not sell the apps directly from its marketplace but acts as a collector, and redirects people to where they can download the app they are looking for.

Nonetheless, the App Center is more focused on discovery and surfacing web, mobile and canvas apps that users are likely to be interested in based on other apps they have tried and what their friends use. In fact, this change is a part of some larger set of updates that the social network has made in the App Center.