The Good
- Makes searching the App Store easier
- Often delivers more relevant results
- Includes easy way to find apps that are on sale
The Bad
- Doesn’t use App Store reviews, so there are many fewer reviews
The Price
Free
Finding apps in the App Store can be a tricky proposition. The big-name apps or those highlighted on the homepage or home sections of various categories are easy to find, but what about when you’re looking for an app that does a particular thing, but aren’t sure whether such an app actually exists? Then the search tool can be less effective and more frustrating.
Chomp aims to improve searching the App Store. Rather than just searching the App Store in the same way iTunes does (by, I believe, primarily the app's name), it uses other criteria in an attempt to deliver better results. While it generally does, it has some drawbacks when compared to the App Store, leaving users without an ideal solution.
Recommendations and Searches
Firing up Chomp, you’re presented with two options: recommended categories of apps (different each time you use the app) and a search bar. Tapping the recommendations shows you a selection of apps in those categories. If you’re searching for a particular item, though, just tap the search bar, enter your search, tap the search button.
Once you’ve got results, you browse them by swiping side to side. The overview results page shows the name of an app, its price, its rating by Chomp users, a screenshot, and buttons to read more or get the app. When you tap on the button to get more information, Chomp presents all the description information and screenshots of the app from the App Store. Tapping the Get It! button takes you to the App Store app to download it.
Besides getting the app, you can add them to a watchlist to buy later or share them with others.
Same Search, Different Results
In keeping with its mission, Chomp delivers different, often more relevant, search results than the App Store. While the results are similar (no surprise there—they’re both drawing from the same group of apps), Chomp tends to deliver more interesting results.
This isn’t always clear when searching for a relatively defined topic. For instance, when you search for “texting” you get the following top three results:
- In Chomp: textPlus Free, TextNow + Voice, HeyWire
- In the App Store: TextNow + Voice, textPlus Free, TextPlus Silver (HeyWire is 6th)
Basically similar results which don’t appear to deliver substantially different value. But when you search for a hazier topic, for instance “children’s magazine,” Chomp begins to shine. In that search, the top three results are:
- In Chomp: Ladybug’s Bookshelf, Flash Cards by Parents, Frog Went a-Dancing
- In the App Store: Ladybug’s Bookshelf, Comics+, BibleReader
In this case, Chomp returns apps that are more appropriate both to kids and what you’ve searched for. None of the results in either app seem to actually be magazines, but at lest Chomp’s results seem more relevant.
Thin Reviews
While searches may be more useful in Chomp, one major place where it’s not as useful as the App Store is reviews. Chomp uses reviews by its users, rather than the reviews at the App Store. The result of this is that apps in Chomp have significantly fewer reviews—and thus less useful information—than at the App Store.
For instance, a recently promoted app—Action Movie FX—has over 17,000 reviews at the App Store. In Chomp, it has only 2. While 17,000 reviews is more than can easily be digested, the combined ratings of over 17,000 users is likely to deliver a better sense of the actual quality of an app than just 2 reviews.
As Chomp picks up more users, its volume of reviews may grow, but right now the App Store outshines Chomp in this area.
The Bottom Line
For some people, the App Store’s search feature is enough. But if you find yourself regularly bumping up against the limits of the search tool, you’ll want to check out Chomp. It’s helped me to find dozens of apps I otherwise wouldn’t have. Combine that with its price—free—and App Store power users will find a lot to like here.
What You’ll Need
An iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad running iOS 4 or higher
