Tech Blog

[#1]

Yep, it seems odd, but Chomp, a very cool crowdsourced recommendation engine for iPhone apps is creating a bunch of sales of other iPhone apps. Which is good, because when there're a lot of apps to choose from -- a solid tool (not tied to the Apple Store recommendation system, which has been gamed in the past) that generates a second opinion is always a good thing.

 

Chomp offers the following features:

• See a live stream of reviews from friends & expert App Celebrities
• Download and review the apps you find to let the world know what you think
• Get app recommendations based on your reviews
• Become an App Celebrity by being the best app reviewer!

Of course, there are a bunch of iPhone app recommendation apps out there, but Chomp seems to have the lock on ease-of-use -- according to TechCrunch:

But the key to the service is reviewing the apps. And that’s as simple as doing a search for the app you’d like to review and giving it a heart (good) or a broken-heart (bad) rating. You can also leave a comment with your thoughts about the apps (though it’s not required), but this is limited to only 60 characters, to keep things brief. This review system works well because again, it’s kept simple. And doing these reviews is the key to getting good recommendations.

I've been using Chomp for a couple of weeks now and have discovered a bunch of new apps to use, both paid and free.

Though frankly, I have no interest in becoming a App Celebrity, so I've not looked into this feature, nor have I invited friends to my app network. I'm probably not exploiting the best features of this app but it doesn't matter, because I'm still getting solid recommendations based on what I've reviewed in the app. In fact, you'll likely see a few more app reviews from me based on Chomp recommendations. It's a worthwhile tool.

And considering that Chomp is free, there's really no reason for you not to try it out and let me know what you think