A pile of apps

[G+_George Kozi]

Originally shared by George Kozi

 

A pile of apps

 

So, under the pressure of being one of the last humans alive that didn't have a Twitter account, I relented. Wondering what I was going to do with it, I opened one a few days ago. Of course, my first instinct was to immediately tweet “going to the bathroom” , followed a few minutes later by  another tweet announcing: “success!” . I didn't.

 

The next step was to find a nice app that will handle my twitter, because going to the Twitter site every time would be idiotic, wouldn't it? So I went to the app store... Like in a Laurel and Hardy movie, the moment I opened the door, a flood of stuff  poured out at me, quickly burying me up to my neck. 

 

There were apps offering solutions for a myriad of problems I didn't know I had, apps that did very little but were packaged in a pretty shell, apps that seemed to be there only for the heck of it, and of course, apps that copied other apps but pretended they didn't.

 

All of them wanted me to grant them access to information I was hesitant to grant them access to. I trust companies like Google and Microsoft because I have experience with them, and they have a lot to lose if they misuse the data they collect... but... should I trust an app maker I have never heard of? How much access should I grant? How far should I open the door, and who am I letting in?

 

Those are not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is to decide which one to choose. The descriptions and the images accompanying the apps are only vague indications, commercials designed to make it look enticing. The only proper way to really know, is to try all of them out... and who has the time to do that?

 

After looking around, I rejected the lot. What I really want is a Twitter feed in my G+ stream, something Google took a detailed good look at, and found it good enough to put it in G+... right next to the stream, in the white desert.

 

At the end of this saga, I have a question for the Tech journalists: When you say that a platform or an app store isn't good enough because it only has 100k apps, are you nuts?

 

Most of the normal people may use 5 to 10 apps on a regular bases, and the freaks may even use 50 to 100. So why do we need app stores with millions of apps in them? Why do you like to make us sift through the crap? 

 

#apps  

[G+_Ian Rumbles]

George Kozi .. great post.   Being able to sift through the myriad of applications on something is daunting, especially on a popular topic like "Twitter App".   It really points to the need for more user and reviewer input into a curated list, to make a Top 10 ... which is no doubt a frequent Google Search.