Google has introduced a brand new section to the Play Store. It is called “App of the Week” and as the name implies, will be used to promote a free app every week. The section is still not visible to everyone, but you can still check out the current app of the week by visiting this link.
The section is supposed to only highlight one app at a time. That again, is pretty much to be expected. After all, it is “app” and not “apps”. With that said, it is kind of at odds to what competitors like Apple have been doing. Apple if you remember, recently kicked off a program in which it created an original series offering us a glimpse into the life and experiences of app developers.
The program also got the selected applications and developers mentoring, and the Cupertino giant promised to feature their apps over the app store free of cost. Google on the other hand, is going with a one app at a time approach and we don’t yet know how exactly the app receiving this honor is being chosen.
It is actually very interesting. We are seeing Google and its associates (YouTube for example) also making a lot of effort to get new content out into the public streams. The reasoning behind this is pretty simple. Once an app or a video gets to the top of the ranking chart, it is very hard for other videos or apps to get noticed for a while — unless it is extremely disruptive or people have tired of the older app. Having all the attention focused upon a few applications is kind of in opposition to the idea of having an app store in the first place.
What’s more, people who are bored but aren’t bred enough to read reviews just so that they can download an app to kill the time (Yes, I know the statement is describing a situation that sounds weird but this condition actually occurs!) have a new haunt. Provided that the apps provided through this section are actually good, we can expect the company to be able to build a consistent hype around that brings people back, every week of the year.
