The App Store is slow, so I built App Store Instant

I just want to point out, re: all these "instant" things, Google instant is useful not because its instant, but because its finishing queries for you.<p>Partial queries are not useful.<p>My 2cents

What we really need is a better app store interface on the iPad. Apple's implementation is terrible[1]. AppShopper shows it would be possible to do. I'd even pay money for such an app. The app could include "spotlight apps" too, as another source of revenue.<p>[1] It is terrible because it always resets itself to the beginning everytime you launch it. Couple that with the fact that installing an app causes the app store to close, means you just can't search around very effectively on it. Simple example: navigate to the third page of top apps, find an app you like, install it, go back to the app store, you've been pushed back to the first page and have to redrill down to page three to keep perusing.

I have 'instant' overload.

The JavaScript (and a bit of the CSS) looks awfully similar to iTunes Instant which was released a few days ago: <a href="http://labs.stephenou.com/itunes" rel="nofollow">http://labs.stephenou.com/itunes</a><p>Edit: according to a few people I've heard from, Stephen (creator of iTunes Instant) did help out / supply some of the code for App Store Instant. My mistake. :)

Although I've got "instant overload" too this is the first of the instant apps with a built in, scalable business model - each of the links on this site is iTunes / linksynergy affiliate enabled - that's truly smart :)

www.instantdomainsearch.com has been doing the instant lookup thing for a while.

The thing that sets this one apart from the others is that it can actually generate revenue (via affiliate links).

Nice idea but worthless results I'm afraid.<p>"secret of monkey island" - no hit, suggestions have none of these words.<p>"air video" - no hit, though at least suggestions include air.<p>"best camera" - ditto.

Will this be a new hacker news meme or something? Being bored or current search tool on site is slow so I built (Insert Name) Instant.

It seems to be missing some of the apps that I can find from the itunes store. We Rule isn't showing up. While another of the We series is.<p>I like the design a lot simple, fast, and calming.

How did you manage to scrap the Apple Store? Are you storing all the apps data locally? I guess it would be a huge overhead to send each of these queries to Apple...

Excellent work! Feature suggestion: iPad / iPhone filtering.

OK, it's not working comprehensively. I think the search term "book" should bring up waaaaay more than the 9 results I'm getting!

I also have instant overload but I must admit, this is one of the better instant apps I've seen! And no begging for a job. :)

very snappy, well done! it found all but one of my published iPhone apps, and very quickly, like Google Instant. Of course, one huge advantage you have is less traffic. And you've got less to render. You may also be showing more of a cached, less real-time view of what's actually in the store (guess).

I typed in "go" and SmartGo Pro was the first result. Impressive.

Nice, too bad I don't shop the App Store by keyword search.

My game GloSnake isn't showing up :(

My two cents ...<p>I find the results often unexpected as a result of matching a search term to several app fields. I search the word "instant" and receive AIM as the top result (presumably because AIM is an "instant" messenger application). Same thing occurs due to matching against developer names, causing what I'd consider to be false (or 'less true') matches to show up because the string matches a developer name, and yet matching app names are lower in the match results, even though the string is in the app name--and often the beginning of the app name.<p>It'd be worthwhile to consider tightening the parameters. I'd wager a typical user performing an instant search is not searching by developer name. I'd further wager an average user is searching by keyword and description less frequently on an 'instant' search than by app name. So perhaps you could try a bit of weighting, pushing X app name matches higher in the results, followed by X description matches, followed by X developer name matches. Perhaps tweak the UI to reflect this.<p>And, of course, I could be completely wrong and this is all just a matter of my expectations not being fulfilled after searching.

Haha I see your logic.<p>Guy creates ytinstant.com, gets hired by google.<p>You create App Store Instant, and (hopefully) get hired by apple.