Remember the apps above? They were in the spotlight when the Marketplace came under attack from a number of clone/spam apps that either had limited functionality or were mere copies that could all be combined. Microsoft published some new guidelines and changed a few things here and there to combat the spam, but we later questioned more apps making their way into the platform catalogue.
Fast forward a few months to this exact date in time and we have a new article published by Todd Brix on the Windows Phone Developer blog. The post outlines that the team plan to introduce a lower cap on the number of apps that can be submitted in 24 hours, from 20 to 10 - effective tomorrow (Friday, 30th). Mr Brix also took a minute to remind developers:
- 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 Any duplicate apps showing up in other categories may be unpublished, per the Windows Phone Marketplace FAQ’s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.
At least Microsoft is continuing to look at ways to limit the number of spam on the Marketplace, but is lowering the limit all that's needed to fight back? Should it be lower than the proposed 10? Sound off your views in the comments. On a closing note, should Microsoft be making $444 million from patent licensing on Android, could Google not indirectly fund a new Windows Phone review team to be on the hunt for the crap in the above image?
Source: Windows Phone Developer blog, thanks WeeBearUK for the heads up!
