Verizon launches Chomp cross-store Android app search solution

Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) is teaming with app search solutions provider Chomp to enable subscribers to more efficiently target Android applications across the operator's V Cast Apps and mobile storefronts as well as Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android Market. The free Chomp search app, available for download exclusively from V Cast Apps, identifies an application's availability across multiple storefronts, with the least expensive price shown first. Customers may search for apps according to name or category.

V Cast Apps is available across about a dozen Verizon smartphones--Todd Murphy, director of Verizon's consumer solutions group, told FierceMobileContent in late March that the storefront offers about 1,000 apps for Android devices and roughly 1,400 for BlackBerry smartphones. V Cast Apps instead stresses quality over quantity, touting rigorous software testing protocols; the store also boasts direct carrier billing integration.

During its annual I/O developer conference earlier this month, Google announced that its Android Market now exceeds 200,000 applications. In tandem with the milestone, Google rolled out a series of Android Market app discovery enhancements of its own: revised top app charts touting more current and relevant results specific to each user's country of origin; a new Editor's Choice feature spotlighting staff recommendations across multiple categories; a Top Developers designation awarding a special icon to developers creating the highest-quality, most popular apps; improved related apps recommendations; and an emphasis on trending app--i.e., apps quickly growing in daily install volume.

For more:
- read this release

Related articles:
Google makes over Android Market to simplify app discovery
Verizon teams with Appcelerator to expand V Cast Apps development
Verizon's V Cast Apps goes live on Droid Incredible
Verizon Wireless adds Subscriptions API to V Cast Apps
Verizon Wireless expands V Cast Apps to embrace Android