Discovering new and useful Android apps isn’t easy. That’s why AppStoreHQ is introducing appESP, a personalized discovery platform for finding new apps on Android phones.
The company is releasing the app today at DiscoveryBeat 2010, our conference on getting apps noticed. The appESP “discovery engine” generates recommended apps using three sources: statistical analysis, or comparing installed apps across all Android users; social, leveraging your own friends to boost recommended apps your friends use; and something called Zeitgeist, analyzing media and social discussion about apps. The Zeitgeist feature uses technology that analyzes thousands of blog posts, tweets and news about Android apps.
The result is individually personalized recommendations delivered straight to your phone, said Chris DeVore, chief executive of AppStoreHQ. You just install the app and the recommendations are delivered to you automatically. The recommendations are recalculated on a daily basis, based on your shifting preferences. You can tune the recommendations by marking each suggested app as “like” or “dislike.” You can also get access to the AppStoreHQ “hottest apps list,” which is updated aily.
The recommendation is available to users via the appESP site and is supported by a cloud-based applications programming interface that can by licensed by third parties such as carriers, phone makers and app publishers.
The company was founded in 2009 and has four employees.The company’s main business is its web-based discovery and distribution platform for iPhone and HTML5 apps.
Rivals include the Android Market, AppBrain and DoubleTwist. A slide show describing appESP is here. The company is founded by Founders Co-op in Seattle. The app has been in beta testing and has 10,000 users.