Yahoo and GetJar are teaming up to make it easier to discover apps on the go, as the independent app store has been integrated into the mobile search experience.
The independent app store has already had more than a billion app downloads but this integration could even help to boost those numbers. Basically, you just need to go to m.yahoo.com on your Android, BlackBerry or Windows Mobile phone and search and it will pop up relevant mobile programs. If you have a capable phone, you’ll be able to download the app directly from the search result.
GetJar explains the process like this:
Yahoo! users conduct searches on http://m.yahoo.com for whatever interests them, and the relevant mobile applications from GetJar will be displayed within the Yahoo! mobile search results. For example, if the search term is “Sports”, the Yahoo! mobile search result will display a cluster of GetJar applications that are relevant to the search query “Sports” in addition to the Web results based on relevancy. This particular search would yield “Sports Brush”, “Sports News” and “CBS Sports Mobile”. Please be sure to give us feedback or share your opinion once your app has been indexed in Yahoo! mobile search queries.
For Yahoo, this is another move that shows it’s taking mobile seriously. The company has released a series of new apps and it will be building all products with mobile in mind. This new search integration is a perfect example of a mobile-first mindset.
GetJar continues to grow dramatically and it may very well be the second-largest app store in the world behind the industry-leading Apple App Store. It continues to experiment with new business models too, as it is paying some developers to give out free, high-quality apps and hoping that the traffic will result in higher advertising reveneus.
[Via GetJar blog]