The estimated reading time for this post is 4 minutes
Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, ZoomAppy is no longer a functioning website.
******************
Zoomappy is a website I am incredibly excited to share with you. I’m always excited to share tech with you, but this website is especially exciting. Why? Because there is a strong need for better search functions for apps and Zoomappy fills that need. Zoomappy is a quick, easy and efficient search engine for apps that is far superior to the search function on iTunes.
The question I get the most frequently from Wonder of Tech readers is: “Do you know of a good app for …?” Finding the best answers to these questions can be challenging because of how iTunes is organized. Zoomappy is an app search website that makes finding the best apps a breeze.
You can search for apps by going to Zoomappy, clicking on the App Discovery page and choosing iOS or Mac apps (Android is coming soon). You can craft your search by using some or all of these search fields:
- Categories (Educational, Utilities, Kids Games, etc.)
- Popularity
- Country
- User Ratings (number of ratings and number of stars)
- Keywords
- Developer
- App Name
- On Sale
- Price
- Release dates
- Hardware (iPad, iPhone/iPod Touch)
Zoomappy has 42 Categories for searching apps, as opposed to 20 Categories in iTunes. Zoomappy has 19 different categories of games, such as board, action, role playing, educational and kids. Not sure which categories you want to search? Zoomappy lets you search multiple categories at once.
Choose your search fields and then hit Enter or the blue arrow in a circle at the top of the search column:
When you get your search results, you have a choice of viewing the results in a grid of icons:
or a list with lots of information about the apps:
You can sort your search results in twelve different ways, such as price, release date, user ratings, etc. I like sorting by user ratings as that’s usually the quickest way to find the best app in your search results.
When you find an app you like, click on the icon to go to the listing in the iTunes App Store to read the reviews and decide whether to buy the app. If you don’t like the app, hit the back button on your browser to return to Zoomappy and explore other apps.
An Example of a Zoomappy App Search
One of my favorite ways to use Zoomappy is searching for apps that a certain developer has on sale. Take a developer like Electronic Arts that has high quality apps such as Scrabble, Madden Football, Monopoly,and Risk that can be quite expensive. Occasionally, Electronic Arts has a 90% off sale on some of these apps, often from $10 down to $1. When this happens, you should grab them.
Zoomappy makes it easy to search for these sales. Just search “Developer: Electronic Arts” under Keyword Search and click on the box that says “Show Apps on Sale” under Price. Go down to Hardware and choose your device. Hit Enter or the blue arrow and you will be taken to all of the Electronic Arts apps on sale (you should actually do this search on Zoomappy because Electronic Arts has some great iPhone/iPod Touch apps on sale right now).
How Is Searching on Zoomappy better than the App Store?
Let’s say you want to search for an app in the iTunes App Store. If you happen to search for the correct keyword, you will see a page with Songs, Albums, Podcasts, Tv Shows, etc. You select Apps and then see two sections, iPhone and iPad apps. You click on iPhone and then get a page of app icons in no particular order. You can’t rank them by best selling, highest ratings, most recent, price, etc. so you have to sift through your results one by one to see what their ratings are, when they were released, etc. If your search reveals hundreds of apps, you could waste a lot of time sifting through your results and never find the best app.
In iTunes you can search by Category by clicking on Power Search, but the categories are so broad, Power Search isn’t much of a help. iTunes only has 19 categories, Zoomappy has 42. In iTunes you can only search one category at a time, with Zoomappy you can search multiple categories at once.
In short, searching for apps in iTunes is complicated, time consuming and inefficient. It’s easy why to see why so many Wonder of Tech readers ask for help with their app searches.
Bottom Line
If you own an iOS device (iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch) or a Mac computer, you should bookmark Zoomappy and make sure to use it the next time you search for an app. You will save yourself loads of time and end up with much better search results.
If you try Zoomappy, let us know your results in the Comments section below, especially if you discover any great new apps!
Thanks for sharing Zoomappy. It’s how searching for apps should be. It’s so helpful to search on customer ratings.
Glad you included you can list the apps rather than just a picture. I don’t think that’s intuitive when you first search. There’s a button on the top right which makes it easy to switch.
I’m so pleased to know about this website!! 🙂
Hi Ronnie, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I agree, when I search for products on Amazon, I always sort by customer ratings. It’s so helpful to now have a website that will sort that way for apps!
I like that Zoomappy has both the icons and the list. The icons are great for glancing quickly to see if there are any apps you recognize. The list is helpful to see a lot more information about each app before you head to iTunes.
This site is incredibly well done, but not many people know about it yet. I’m glad you like the site as much as I do. You’re 100% correct, Zoomappy is how searching for apps should be!
Thanks for straightening me out. I thought Zoomappy was a map of the zoo.
Hi Jerry, Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech! You’re not the only one who was confused. When I tried to search Zoomappy on Google, it thought I meant Zoo Maps and my search results were filled with maps of different zoos! Now you have it straight, so you are more informed than Google. 🙂
Carolyn, I sincerely appreciate the great and detailed review and sharing with your readers. The feedback is great and I am already working on some changes to make the experience more intuitive….with more customizable search features for users.
While I think zoomappy.com works pretty well on an iPad (through Safari), I am strongly leaning towards creating a native app for the iPhone and iPad to provide more flexibility. Currently working to provide more detailed information about each app including analytic trends and more general App Store statistics that folks may find interesting and useful.
I look forward to any and all suggestions from you and your readers on how to make ZoomAppy better! Also glad to answer any questions.
Happy searching!
-Kyle (zoomappy.com)
Hi Kyle, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Thank you for your kind words. As you can tell by my post, I am very impressed with your site. Wonder of Tech readers have struggled with finding the right apps in the App Store and your site will be very helpful to them.
I had thought of the idea of a Zoomappy app, but I figured you had your hands full getting Android app searching on your site. A Zoomappy app would be fantastic. It sounds like there are interesting developments ahead for Zoomappy. 🙂
I looked at the website and it seems like such a great site!! I am very excited to hear that the Android app store will be coming soon! It is such a hastle to use the app store and I get frustrated every time I download a useless app. Do you know when Zoomappy will have coverage of the Android?
Hi Jillian. You’re right, Zoomappy is a great site. I hope it does come to the Android Market soon because searching in the Android Market is even more challenging than searching in the iTunes App Store. While you’re waiting for Zoomappy to cover Android, check out the Android App Store on Amazon: Amazon App Store. Amazon has a free Android App every day!
Hi Jillian,
I wish I had a firm date when Android app information will be available on ZoomAppy. Unfortunately, we continue to hit some road blocks with the data from Google, which gives us less confidence that we can accurately provide complete coverage of the Android Market. It’s probably more of an issue with us and lack of understanding of how to retrieve all the information properly than any fault of Google. We have similar issues with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 data.
That said, there are a few links focused exclusively on the Android Market. As an Android phone user myself, I use these resources (as well as the new Amazon app market) to find apps.
Android Market Resources
https://market.android.com/ (Official Android Market by Google)
http://www.androidzoom.com/ (not affiliated with zoomappy)
http://www.appbrain.com/
http://www.appstorehq.com/
Here is another link describing app discovery tool that you can use on your phone.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/sublog/app-discovery/
I hope these resources help as an alternative. I wish we had all the information available today on ZoomAppy but it’s worth noting some of the other good stuff that is available out there.
Cheers!
Hi Kyle, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Thank you very much for developing such a helpful website for app shoppers and for your reply here. These links are very helpful for Wonder of Tech readers to try to find Android apps. I look forward to the day when Zoomappy covers the Android Market. Please keep us posted!
Wow! A real “search engine” for apps that is user friendly! I-tunes is so cumbersome to use … Zoomappy is so so much better. Thanks again for pointing out a wonderful tech tool.
Hi Carol, I’m so glad you find Zoomappy helpful. I think it’s the website people have been waiting for if they have an iOS device.
Nice concept of a search engine for apps, always good to get some good apps at a discount price. Thanks for letting us know about new and helpful sites,
Hello Uttoran Sen, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m glad you found Zoomappy, I’m using it all the time now to find apps. Today I learned that Namco (maker of Pac Man) was having apps on sale so I searched for it on Zoomappy and grabbed some great apps. Here’s the link to the search: Namco Sale Apps.
I wish I have my own Ipad so that I can try using Zoomappy. Its features sound very interesting. I can save more of my time and I can do other things.
Hi Raverture, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Good news, you don’t need an iPad to use Zoomappy, it’s a website, not an app. The site searches apps for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches so if you have one of these devices you can search for apps at http://www.zoomappy.com. If you don’t have any of these devices, you can still use zoomappy if you to search for apps as gifts to give to friends who have those devices.
Thanks for your visit and your comment!