Google has shown the door to nearly 60,000 apps considered to be repetitive, spammy, in violation of “terms of service” or otherwise deemed to be inappropriate for distribution through the play store.
It appears that the majority of the apps that have been removed are from two specific categories. The first being applications from unknown developers or developers who have ‘black marks’ against their names from past infringements. The second being redundant or repeated apps. A large number of the apps that have disappeared are MP3 ringtone apps which are notoriously bad for either violating the Google Play terms of service or at least making it easier for users who install them to sign up for extra services they didn’t intend on.
There’s a massive number of rules and regulations about apps that should and should not be placed in the Play Store by developers. The two most relevant rules that are most likely to have been drivers for this recent clean out are :
- Product descriptions should not be misleading or loaded with keywords in an attempt to manipulate ranking or relevancy in the Store’s search results.
- Do not post repetitive content.
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Your average user won’t see the difference, the users who take the time to look into the apps and in particular the quality of apps that are available on the Play Store will. The search results will be less cluttered and much more appropriate to your search input.
Perhaps this cleanout was the precursor to yesterdays launch of their new Google Play Store experience, regardless it’s another clear indicator from Google that they’re pushing hard to keep the Play Store a quality market and reduce the perception that it’s a mass market for junk apps or apps that can be malicious in nature.
Do you like that Google are taking out the trash and keeping the Play Store clean? Let us know in the comments below
