App Store Search Ads and the Slippery Slope

Jeremy Provost, on the blog for Think Tap Work, his mobile app development company: iOS App Store search is no longer about relevance. It’s about ad inventory. With Apple’s introduction of a second search ad, for any query where we weren’t #1, we’ve effectively moved down one position. [...] If you’re counting at home, roughly 70% of the interface is covered in ads. A casino ad, to boot. That was a month ago. Two weeks later, he posted a follow-up, showing the effect on Think Tap Work’s ap...