Recently, Google has shared some details about Google Play Store. The Privacy and Security team of Google revealed the procedure how Google apps are being curated in Play Store. As Google says, it has two main goals when it comes to dealing with Apps. These are ''Safety'' and ''Exposure''.
The mission of the team is to exterminate suspicious and infected apps, yet at the same time try to give Maximum Exposure to apps that enjoy sound followings and have a good reputation.
Details of the Procedure
Google's Security and Privacy team does this by making ''Peer Groups''.
In this technique, apps with similar features or followings are grouped together. For instance, Facebook and Twitter are very much similar to each other and they both enjoy handsome followings together with a good reputation. So, they are grouped together and maximum exposure will be given to this group. However, apps that are indifferent to each other in features but are equally famous like Pandora and Spotify, although they are totally different but will be peered together to attain equal exposure.
When it comes to peer groups that a user will see on his device, Google makes use of personal information of each user to rectify what type of group should be exposed to a particular user. Google elaborates it further by giving the example of a Coloring Book App that requires GPS and one that doesn't.
If a person already uses apps that require GPS location and has no problem with that. The coloring app that requires GPS would be exposed to him first and vice versa.
This practice makes Play Store user's experience a lot more enjoyable as each result is different for each user depending on his personal choice.
Google uses a learning algorithm
Although this whole operation looks easy it's far more complex than someone's imagination. There exist millions of apps in Play Store and thousands open their eyes each day. In order to tackle the situation and to provide maximum useful results to the user, Google uses a leaning mechanism. Search algorithms evaluate the app by taking a look at its features and its following, and then user's personal preference is considered using his personal information.
A blend of this information produces required results on screen.
It's amazing to see how much Google cares to provide best user experience to its users. It has shared this information to give developers and the general public an idea about the complexity of its operations and how much it does to guard its users against infected and suspicious apps that can cause damage to their devices.
