Breaking news from Google and App developers

News was recently shared on Google’s Inside Search blog. For Android users in the USA, their search results will now include apps. In addition, users that are logged in to their Google accounts will also see links to the apps they have already downloaded. The update only affects users who are on Android 2.3 or above, and for now it’s only available in the US.

This is important news however, particularly for content creators who are developing mobile apps and trying to market them online.

Google’s Inside Search blog was updated by Scott Huffman, VP of Engineering at Google. He stated, “Starting today, Google can save you the digging for information in the dozens of apps you use every day, and get you right where you need to go in those apps with a single search. Google Search can make your life a little easier by fetching the answer you need for you – whether it’s on the web, or buried in an app.”

Put simply, if you enter a query and the best result is an app, now you will see the app in the displayed results and have the ability to simply click and download. This is fantastic news for mobile app developers. Over the last six months we have seen a significant increase in clients approaching us for help to promote new apps to complement their websites and e-commerce enterprises.

This new feature will make it much easier to identify and find the right app. It provides a huge boost for app developers and how they can promote their products too. Now, more than ever, the correct indexing and clever addition of keywords within app names and descriptions has become more important than ever. If the best result is an app, then it’s vital the apps are listed correctly so they can benefit from this.

The function which also lists currently owned apps is handy too. It directs users to open the app for the answer they seek. Brilliant. So often we have apps and don’t always think to use them, so this is going to boost use of apps too. If you take this one step further, it is going to boost user figures and potentially give developers another avenue to direct traffic to websites.

Results will include items available in Google Play and the links will take users straight to the download page. A clever way to ensure apps are made available for that platform.

The Open in App feature is currently limited to the following apps:

AllTrails, Allthecooks, Beautylish, Etsy, Expedia, Flixster, Healthtap, IMDb, Moviefone,

Newegg, OpenTable, Trulia, Wikipedia.

But watch Google for updates and to hear news of more as they are added. And note the sites which are retailing goods to the public!

This is not a surprising development from Google. Most would agree it was bound to happen as part of the evolution of mobile web, and mobile apps. Its good news for developers though.

We’ll be keeping an eye on how things progress.