Ever tried finding applications for the Android platform on the web rather than from your handset? Don’t even consider using the regular web version of Android Market – Google’s official app directory – on your computer’s browser: it has no search (irony much?), no categories, no community involvement like comments, ratings and reviews, and it’s only available in English for now.
In other words: it sucks.
As a reporter lacking an Android-powered phone but with a great interest in the platform, it sucks even more. Sometimes I need to know which applications in a certain category are available for Android, what people are saying about them, what version a certain app is at, and so on. Until now, I used Cyrket for that, a third-party directory that provides me with most of the functionality I need for doing a bit of research about Android apps. But the website is slow, regularly returns errors and doesn’t provide a decent filter between paid and free apps, so the experience was usually below par.
But now, thanks to @conoro, I found another website with Android apps listings that should suit my needs for now: AndroLib. A tad more pleasing to the eyes than Cyrket (albeit not that much), AndroLib is available in 7 of the most spoken languages in the world, has proper search and RSS, clear application overview pages and supports feedback from the user and developer community.
Finally!
thats really funny that Google makes nothing for Android popularity. But, well, soon Nokia, other brands will bring similar Androproducts – and then…
And it SEEMS to allow for apps that aren’t available in the UK. This is awesome!
Thanks for the helpful post, Robin
Great Website created by the guys behind the #1 Programming community in France codes-sources.com
This is great to see the Android Community step up and offer tools to ease the pain of browsing the Android App Market. Kudos!
NICE!
They also let people upload screenshots of the various apps that’s pretty awesome…It actually helped me decide to buy an Analytics app http://www.andr...ytics-jjpC.aspx
These guys even created a chineese version. sweet
About time! The ‘official’ site is surprisingly useless.
Is it me or the website looks like crap ?
Nice website, it appears to be a newly launched website, I think it has potential and its open in 7 different languages too.
There was also cyrket.com that did a similar work.
Google seems to be neglecting the market side of the android equation. There are only a handful of countries where developers can sell their apps.
Google has made it clear that the success of Android is up to the people who use it, develop apps, etc. So it doesn’t surprise me that there isn’t a good app store and that to me is deliberate. They want people like you and me to develop 3rd party apps that will help the Android market grown and exist on its own.
Apple right now has all the control when it comes to apps. To some that is too much control and to others it is just the right level of control.
Don’t compare iPhone with the Android phone as much as it is only natural to do so but if you do you will be totally disappointed.
It is a different paradigm, lets deal with it!
Patiently waiting for an Android phone with a physical keyboard other than the G1
I can’t wait to see another phone with a physical keyboard too. Virtual keyboards are nice and all but I have problems typing on them.
I don’t understand why people tend to compare their phones with the iPhone. It’s pretty annoying in fact. Each phone has it’s perks and you should appreciate those features. You can sit around all day and focus on the differences between any phone.
Nice site to browse through the Market though. Great job devs!
This is great for the Android Community. Now they need to add ranking features like on androidstats.com, then it is perfect.
the interface is way better than cyrket
Now when will there be a decent website to browse iphone apps?
who cares about android? really.
Tried 4 different searches and it yielded same results. A little rough around the edges but works well so far.
Android is GOOGLE’S , I don’t think it is better
android is google’s, I don’t think it is better
Many thanks for this article !
I post a comment to inform readers that we remade the search engine of AndroLib and it is more relevant now.
Regards
Nicolas
http://www.appsd.com does the same for iphone apps. More over you can find related apps, related articles, videos, and news for all the apps.
Thanks for this, I was just browsing around and looking for something like this as the android app page was rubbish.