No More App Chomping With Chomp: Apple Discontinues Support For Acquired App Search Engine
October 2, 2012
Chomp has lost its bite, or more accurately, its ability to operate.
As noted by MacRumors, Apple, which acquired it last February, has pulled the plug on the hitherto popular app for app search and discovery.
Chomp, according to its now now defunct description in the App Store, is "the search engine that finds the apps you want."
Chomp’s proprietary algorithm learns the functions and topics of apps, so you can search based on what apps do, not just what they’re called. Try searching for “puzzle games”, “kids games”, “expense trackers”, “tip calculators” or “chat” and start finding great apps. The Chomp app is currently available for iPhone and iPod Touch. For more information visit Chomp on the web at chomp.com.Of course, having been discontinued by Apple, the Chomp app is no longer available for any iDevice. The app is no longer listed in the App Store, and existing installs are no longer supported as of Sept. 30. As for the Chomp website, it now conveniently redirects to Apple's homepage. Chomp was acquired by Apple as part of its plans to improve the App Store. At first, the acquisition's effect on the App Store was more of the under-the-hood variety. Last June, the App Store began to display more relevant search results, believed to be an effect of adopting Chomp's search algorithms. But last month, we saw what was then the most discernible evidence of Chomp's influence. The pre-release iOS 6 App Store was updated with a tile-based search result interface clearly inspired by that of Chomp. The new interface is visually appealing, but it has been widely criticized for making app search and discovery more difficult than before. So much for improving the App Store, no? Source: MacRumors
