Apple Acquires Search Startup Ottocat
June 4, 2015
Apple needed a better search system for its app store, so it bought a startup; according to TechCrunch, “Apple Acquired Search Startup Ottocat to Power the ‘Explore’ Tab in the App Store.” Writer Ingrid Lunden observes that the deal was kept pretty quiet, but suspects it was agreed to in 2013; that is when Ottocat’s website disappeared. Months later, Apple implemented the “explore” feature for its App Store. So why did Apple pick Ottocat? The article explains:
“In a nutshell, its technology essentially addressed pain points on both sides of the App Store: for users unable to find specific enough results for subject-based app searches when they don’t have a specific app in mind; and for developers unhappy with how well their apps could be discovered among a sea of 1 million+ other apps. The premise was to do away with keywords by categorizing apps into increasingly more specific subcategories that worked on a ‘drill-down’ principle — eliminating the guesswork and potential inaccuracy of keywords altogether. …
“For example, rather than searching on ‘guitar’ or scrolling through the full selection of music apps that the term might call up, or the chart for the most popular music apps — which can contain streaming apps, apps that are designed to work with specific hardware, apps that let people use their phones to play music, apps that teach them how to play a specific instrument, and so on — you can start to look at specific subcategories to find a selection of apps you may want to download.”
Launched in 2012 by Michelle Cooper and Edwin Cooper, Ottocat is headquartered in Oakland, California. Lunden wonders whether the Cooper pair is now working at Apple, and what they might be working on. Search for Safari, perchance? Maybe neither Yahoo nor Microsoft will provide Safari’s default search once Apple’s deal with Google expires, after all.
Cynthia Murrell, June 4, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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