I'm finding many mobile apps simple/clean to use - although the 'responsive design' movement is diluting that.
the optimizations for (native) apps just moved from the app-level to the market-place level.
However, if the optimization for apps is based on usage, reviews, downloads, etc, then having a good experience is consistent with having good rankings.
Not so much with SEO where things like engagement and usage data don't factor much into rankings since it's not reliable
that's a story the link-counting-tool providers (i.e. seomoz) and linknetworks / linkbuilidng companies have been telling for years. and it is bullshit to keep the (crapy) status quo in SEO (because their business is deeply rooted into the status quo).
ux metrics (serp clickthrough, long clicks) are an a factor for ages, see i.e. the discussion about "long-clicks" in the exgoogler book "i'm feeling lucky".
plus: on big sites it is very easy (and i and other have done it multiple time) to test this UX factor. just make the UX of google referred visits significant poorer (i.e. via cloaking or performance delays) and see what happens to your overall SERP impressions and click throughs.
the same goes for reviews, there is even an publicly available googler paper about it.
also i know the webmaster videos as well, they are more in the tone of "you have to be careful when you look at user behavior".
also your argument has huge holes: "it's GOOD if a visitor spends 5 seconds there vs. 5 minutes because it means they found what they wanted." well, there is an statistical technic called "standard deviation", if the SD is too big, don't factor it in. (i don't say that google does this, i'm sure they are more sophisticated, but it's a good counter argument for your example)
"Sometimes usage data is misleading." well, then G would just have to determine when it is misleading and with which probability.
i repeat: just test it. (and: don't read to much seomoz.)
I suspect that sucky discovery is somehow beneficial to Apple. This also makes me think that good discovery in app stores might be the key to Google competing with Apple.
Relax. The question was put out there genuinely, not as FUD. If Apple has so much to benefit from app discovery, why has it taken so long?
I suspect that a lot of people at Apple benefit personally by having the power to decide which apps are featured, and which are not. I know devs for which this makes a difference as big as a good middle class salary or more. I am agreed that it's to Apple's benefit to have better discovery, but as well governed as it is, Apple is not a monolithic entity.
Smart money says that the acquisition is going to lead to much-improved discoverability on the iOS App Store.
I would love for this to happen. I'm not so sure this is in an area of core competency for Apple, though. Acquiring Chomp was the right move, but acquisitions don't always pan out.
Because it's a hard problem to solve? Because app vendors are excellent at gaming any system for competitive advantage?
Curating apps is tough, whether it's delivered via an app store, or whether it's a publicly available app.
There's a reason it was easier to find apps in the PC era; there weren't that many quality apps. There were 1-2 word processors worth a damn, a few spreadsheets, and a few databases. Development costs were high because the apps were difficult to create, and distribution costs prevented developers from monetizing them easily.
Compare that with today's apps; small, easier coding, far easier distribution. You end up with millions of apps for Android and iOS. And there's no hallowed authority like BYTE or PC Magazine to bless your app;
Somewhere out there, someone is thinking along the lines of Page and Brin, thinking out of the box about how to make app discovery work; and when they do, we'll all slap our heads and think "why didn't we think of that?" And then the SEO guys will slowly adapt and app discovery will end up like web discovery.
Chalk that up to the era of disposable apps -- Spending a few bucks during discovery doesn't seem like such a bad thing to a user, I guess, but in aggregate, is pretty unsatisfying.
1 - http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/23/apple-chomp/
2 - http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/29/looks-like-apple-has-change...