The History of Search and How Quixey is Shaping the Future

July 23rd, 2012 | Posted by Quixey in Functional Search | Functional Web | Uncategorized - (1 Comments)

Remember when finding what you were looking for on the web was like winning the lottery, those not-so-long-ago days before “Google” became a verb?  Today, finding an app can be frustrating just like web search used to be.  At Quixey, we think we’ve built a solution.  What Google did for the web, Quixey is doing for app search.

In the early days of the web, the curious web surfer had the choice between using a keyword-based search engine that delivered low quality results and browsing a directory where links were curated and organized by topic; one was inaccurate, the other tedious.  Keywords were far too simple a measure of search relevancy to be effective and directories couldn’t possibly keep up with the explosion of content on the web.  

Today, the app ecosystem is organized much like the directories of old.  App stores categorize apps by topic and offer basic keyword search.  Finding apps like this is tedious and inaccurate.  What can we learn from the development of information discovery on the web that might be applicable to app discovery?

The directory model fit the web in the early 1990s when the number of reputable sites on a given topic was still reasonable.  When Yahoo! was founded in 1994 and built one of the best directories of its day, there were only about 10,000 websites total.  The world wide web was small.  But directories maintained by real people don’t scale well and as the web continued to expand, the model collapsed under its own weight.

By 1998, the web had surpassed one million sites.  The directory model couldn’t keep up.  Enter Google.  Larry Page and Sergey Brin recognized that the web had an underlying structure that could be leveraged to provide accurate search results.  By mapping the way web pages were linked together and quantifying the relative value of those links, they created an entirely new way to find information on the web, one that was accurate and scalable.  This was revolutionary.  The potential of the web to provide useful information on just about any topic, whenever you need it, had finally been unlocked.

What Google did for web search, Quixey is doing for app search.  In 2011, the total number of mobile apps surpassed one million.  This was the tipping point.  Just as the directory model for the web collapsed when it reached one million sites, app directories are collapsing under their own weight.  There are simply too many apps to be organized in a directory.

At Quixey, we believe we’ve found the answer.  Our approach moves beyond the directory model of app discovery and towards an approach that finds apps based on the simple question, “What do you want to do?”  To answer this question, we’ve identified and leveraged the underlying structure to the app ecosystem, what we call the Functional Web.  Every time an app is talked about on the web, in blog posts, reviews, comments, etc, a contextual relationship is created between the app and some type of description.  These relationships can be mapped to provide an accurate picture of what that app actually does.  We’ve also mapped how these apps relate across platforms, so you can find what you’re looking for wherever you need it.

Apps are designed to help you get things done.  Looking for a gas station in a new part of town?  An app can help you find it.  Want to stay up to date on your favorite sports team?  An app has the scores you need.  With this in mind, we designed our search to answer a simple question: “What do you want to do?”  No more browsing lists in an app store or guessing at the most effective keyword to search.  Quixey can help you find the app to do what you want, when you need it.  This is revolutionary.

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With Unlimited Information Available, App Developers Help Make it Useful

July 15th, 2012 | Posted by Quixey in App Trends | Uncategorized - (0 Comments)

Imagine a river of information streaming from connected devices everywhere: your fridge monitors the items placed within, letting you know what’s about to expire; traffic sensors provide real-time notification of a slowdown on your route to work; the lights in your apartment signal whether they’ve been left on…the possibilities are limitless.  This type of information exists already and the reach of this Internet of Things grows exponentially each year. However, the information layer that’s spreading all over the world is often just data, unstructured and messy, that needs to be processed into something useful and functional. The key to leveraging this data is apps.

Apps leverage the information layer and process the data into convenient solutions for particular problems.  They provide the useful information and functionality you need, when you need it.  Take the example of the lights in your apartment.  In some sort of digital home environment, your lights are connected to the internet. Your lights send intermittent signals about their status, are they on or off?  That’s great, but the data itself isn’t enough.  That’s where apps come in.  If you’ve left home and can’t remember if you left the lights on, you can pull up an app on your phone and see that, yes, the lights in your kitchen are still on.  From there, just hit the off button on your phone, and your kitchen lights turn off, miles away.

The app I just described is a smart, efficient solution to a particular problem.  It turns all the data created by connected devices in your apartment into actionable information, that the kitchen lights are on, and offers the functionality to turn them off.  All this takes place wherever you have an internet connection.

As the information layer continues to spread, as connected devices become more and more ubiquitous, we will rely on apps to make that information useful and actionable.  The future belongs to those who can best leverage the information layer.  Thankfully, no matter what you want to do, apps can help–and Quixey can help you find the right one.

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No Such Thing As A Monday

July 6th, 2012 | Posted by Quixey in Culture - (0 Comments)

This post was written by Jason Prosnitz, Director of Strategic Initiatives. He wrote an impromptu piece on why he loves working at Quixey and we decided to share it here.

I love my job.

Can you say that too? Most people in the working world feel a constant pressure to get their work done faster. Whether it is due to sales quotas, bugs in the code, customer service complaints, or a different issue, there is always pressure top down (from management) to get more done by the end of the each day, week, month, or quarter.

Quixey is different.  There is a very different type of pressure for us to succeed and it is not imposed from the top down; it comes from within.  We are already moving fast; the challenges that we face every day are so interesting, engaging and fun that there is no need to apply pressure from above.  From the minute I roll out of bed in the morning, I am so amped up and excited about what the day is to bring, I just GO. I completely forget about the expectations of others because my own usually surpass them.  Make no mistake, I’m not a unique Quixier in this way, which is another great reason to love working at Quixey: the people. At Quixey, we’re all excited about what we are doing. I get to collaborate with the smartest people that I know, and to solve the most interesting challenges that I’ve ever come across – what other motivation is necessary?

Another aspect that I love about Quixey is our vision for the future. Nowadays, people agree that with the number of apps out there and the rate at which that number is increasing, finding the right one presents a serious problem. Not that long ago, we had to work harder to explain the need for app search. There were only a few platforms, and people seemed satisfied with the results they were getting by using categories and top-ten lists. Quixey has always known that the app ecosystem was growing too quickly for categories, top-ten lists and directories to last, and it’s rewarding to see users jump on board with our vision. It’s a great feeling to know that we are helping to shape the app ecosystem of the future and that Quixey enables us to have such a significant impact.

Most people in the working world dread Mondays – the restart button of a miserable workweek. At Quixey, Mondays don’t exist – every day is as fun and as exciting as the last.  Every day is a Friday.

 

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