I keep a close eye on the Windows Store and apps as they show up. Currently there is a good mix of apps in there and, like in any app store, there is also a good bit of apps that are not of great quality.
However, one area that has been increasingly bugging me is a flood of RSS apps. Currently there are over 1,000 RSS style apps under the News & Weather category in the store. Now I am OK with someone wanting to publish their RSS feed in a unique app and if it is one developer and their feeds then OK but when one developer submits multiple apps, of a similar nature or from a similar source then I have a problem with that.
I think better controls should be in place in the app certification process to prevent this.
Here are some examples of this type of flooding currently in the Windows Store:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Quick breakdown of above examples:
- One has 38 RSS feed apps for BBC news feeds approved.
- One has 110 RSS feed apps which includes 29 for Yahoo! alone.
- One has 78 RSS feed apps for various feeds.
- One has 74 RSS feed apps approved for various feeds.
These are just a few of the bigger examples of this that are in the Windows Store. There are many on a much smaller scale as well.
These feeds and apps should be in one app based on either their category, source or who developed the app. If they come from Yahoo! then make one Yahoo! app for the feeds. Same thing for BBC. If the feeds are consolidated by one developer then combine them from that perspective.
Now the developers of these apps are doing what is being allowed so I have no bone to pick with them but I do think there needs to be better controls on getting these type of apps consolidated.
The last thing that is needed is ammunition for people (read pundits) to say the numbers in the Windows Store are being inflated by practices like this to get the count number up.
As I have said before – it is Windows – the apps will come because it is Windows.
