Crosswa.lk has been around for a little while now on the web – it’s a platform that monitors trending applications within groups of people to the end of making recommendations of Apps that new users may like. It does it really well, but today it’s found it’s new home in the place that it should have always been – on the iPhone itself.
This comes just two weeks after Apple acquired the somewhat less well-used Chomp. In my opinion, Crosswa.lk is everything that Chomp wasn’t – it’s social, it groups the way the real world does and it’s a much nicer App. I’ve got to imagine that seeing as this was probably already in the approval queue when the ink was put on the Chomp deal, that they knew that this was coming – so I’m left wondering, why did they choose to acquire Chomp, when Crosswa.lk has an App that could be a total drop-in replacement for most of the App Store?!
If you like discovering new Apps – you should definitely check this one out!
Sounds like a fantastic idea. Having a bit of trouble with it though, is it possible to add friends through another way rather than Facebook? Also, can’t seem to actually add my apps to my profile…There is a strong chance I’m being an idiot, can anyone help?
Laura – You’re right – Facebook seems to be the only way on the App at the moment. Adding the Apps seems to be tough on the phone itself – assumedly they tried to add this feature – the same way they do on the website – and Apple didn’t allow it.
Currently – you need to so some setup on http://crosswa.lk to get the full benefit from it. Another reason it would have been great if Apple had taken it in-house.
Tom from Crosswa.lk here. You can add apps in the iphone app by clicking the little + icon in the upper right when viewing an app. Ideally we would prefer you to sync your apps via full profile registration on the site. Once you do that everything syncs, your reviews, ratings, and apps.
As for friends. we’re using Facebook for the moment for actual friend discovery. We’ll have twitter and linked in soon. We’re also going to have Crossinguards, that are the top users in their communities. So they will get recommended to you based off similar interests. – Tom
They are asking to login with your itunes account? no way..i have been using a few services for app discovery. Zwapp, frenzapp and appsfire which i am still using a lot
this one looks cool, but there is no way on earth i am giving my itunes account…not even sure apple would be ok with that..
This could be a good second reason to trawl the device for installed Apps using the registered URL Schemes that apps use.
Thomas – could you comment on the security of this?
We’re as secure as you can get on the internet at the moment based on current standards. People like to bring this up, like iTunes Credentials are so holy. Amazon, Fandango, and iTunes itself actually store your actual credit card number. We’re at the same level of security, and 1 degree further separated from your wallet.
I mean… It’s a Mint/BillGuard/Yodlee thing. If you’re comfortable signing in, you get a ton of insight and recommendations. If you’re worried about services like this accessing your account on your behalf, you forego a lot of those great benefits. Practically speaking, it’s a choice of comfort more than security; there’s a lot of precedent for this type of relationship.
Hi Tom, thanks for clearing up a few things. Are there any plans to eventually be able to add friends by username, in a similar way to Game Center?
I’d like to ask what advantages you think Crosswalk has over other players in this domain such as AppsGrooves, youAPPi or Discovr? Why should I use your app and not one of the other ones around?
I myself think that the whole concept of using currently installed app inventory is ridiculous.
We all have tones of apps installed, which we long forgot about. I don’t want to “discover” more of those….
So this makes me worry a lot with croswlk. The fact they get to the point where you HAVE to give them your iTunes, means they rely ONLY on this.
Like Eric, I used also Zwapp, frenzapp and appsfire. But also Chomp, appbutler, appolicious, appshoper,apptizr, discover apps, appgrooves.
They all get me board eventually. I get the same garble of all kind of apps which I have no intention to install. Eventually I feel I just wasted my time.