Android Market Algorithm Changed Again...

After noticing that almost all of the Android Market Apps ranked in our system had 0 rank change for the past update, I quickly went on autopilot to find the bug that was causing this to happen. However, to my surprise there was no bug.

Over the past three days the majority of Android Market Applications did not move one inch from their position in the market. This caused me to investigate the stats provided by Google on my applications statistics page, which is found on the developer portal. I noticed that my installs had not been updated since Friday 4/22.

So, did Google just take the holiday weekend to a new extreme and give their algorithm computers a rest too? I could almost understand them not running updates on installs, but why must the market be put at a standstill? I can see now that their secret algorithm is highly dependant on daily installs and uninstalls rather than more long-term stats.

The other side to this stalemate could be that Google is about to make a very big change, or already has, minimizing the movement of apps within the Android Market ranks. I am interested to hear your ideas on this.

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