Google Dusts Off The Shelves And Removes 60,000 Apps From The Play Store
In a bout of spring cleaning Google has removed 60,000 apps from the Play Store, representing the largest purge ever from the Android store. The majority of the apps removed seem to be as a result of spam or low quality, targeting apps related MP3s or ringtones. That suggests it could also be copyright issues with said MP3s or ringtones, but I doubt we would ever find out.
Google’s Play Store is open, where any registered developer can sell apps without having to go through a review process, hence there are a lot of garbage apps out there. Google does however have official reasons for removing apps such as malware issues, copyright and sexual material leaving the management of the majority of apps to the rating system in the store itself.
Perhaps this is a sign of things to come and Google is trying to find a balance between a huge catalogue and a high quality catalogue. Whatever the reason for the recent purge it is nice to see some sort of standard being put in place for what passes as a quality app. Google has stated that it has 700,000 apps available, crappy ones will always exist and for now we will have to trust in the rating system that has served pretty well so far.