Microsoft Cracking Down on Marketplace Spam – (Bulk Apps)
September 29, 2011 1 Comment
Everyone likes to put a big emphasis on how many apps a certain store or marketplace has. I believe numbers are good and its great to have tons of apps in a certain marketplace but its more important to have quality apps. Even though one of the biggest gripes some reviewers may have with Windows Phone is still that they have less apps than some other mobile OS stores that have been around for much longer. That’s not stopping Microsoft from cracking down on app spam in the Windows Phone marketplace. Publishing apps in bulk have now become almost damn near impossible – now that Microsoft has changed a couple of things and made some new rules.
“Effective Friday 9/30 we are limiting the number of apps that can be published in a single day without prior agreement to 10. This means that no more than 10 apps by the same developer will be certified per day (down from 20). In addition we will monitor the number of apps published – not just certified – in a given day and be more proactive in correcting instances where the 10 app limit is exceeded. This may include the unpublishing of apps, and in extreme cases, temporary or permanent suspension of an offending developer’s Marketplace credentials.”
Not only are they lowering the maximum number of apps you can publish in one day to 10 but they are also reminding the developer community of a few rules.
- Unique apps can only be published in a single category. Any duplicate apps showing up in other categories may be unpublished, per the Windows Phone Marketplace FAQ’s
- When applying similar templates to multiple types of apps, we recommend differentiating apps through unique iconography, titles and other metadata to help potential customers make informed decisions about downloading apps.
- As mentioned in application certification requirement 2.10, apps must have distinct, substantial and legitimate content and purpose. Differentiation between your apps can help meet this requirement.
- There are several ways for your apps to be featured in Marketplace on the phone and now on the Web. Apps are featured by category based primarily on their number of downloads and customer reviews. The same is true for the cumulative top and free sections. The New panorama that makes up the background is algorithmic based on timing.
I am so glad that Microsoft is laying down the law against bulk publishing and I can only hope that they keep a vigilant eye on the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Source: Windows Phone Team
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