December 3, 2012
What does the App Store genius have to say about your app?
Here’s a fun little experiment: download the iPhone app for a newspaper (preferably the one for where you work), then check out the Genius section of the App Store to see what matches come up. I tried the app for the Kamloops Daily News and got some interesting results.
First up was InMemoriam.ca. It likely showed up because we use the service to publish obituaries on our website. Still, anything to do with death notices can be a little bit scary when you’re constantly told that newspapers are a dying industry.
Next came BCNDP. OK, we write stories about the NDP, but we also have stories about other political parties. Why didn’t one of their apps show up? What’s particularly odd is that the NDP leans to the left, but we’re usually accused of following a right-wing corporate agenda.
The last of the three was CNW, a firm that sends out press releases. Really, Genius? I hope you’re not suggesting that we do little more than publish re-writes of press releases. That would be hitting below the belt.
So, was it enlightening? No — but fun if taken in the right spirit.