There are countless search systems floating around the web, but it has just been announced that Apple has purchased the app search company Chomp. This isn’t a normal Apple takeover to squash a competitor though; it looks like Apple has serious plans for the expertise it just purchased.
According to 9to5mac, the staff of Chomp are becoming well and truly intertwined with Apple, with its CEO and CTO both assuming fairly senior positions.
Why? The current thinking is that Apple’s App Store has become unwieldy. With over 500,000 apps, it’s probably in need of a technical overhaul — and it makes sense to buy a start-up that’s been performing so well that it already has an exclusive deal with Verizon to power all of its Android-based app searches. Expect some big changes at the iOS app store real soon. [TechCrunch and 9to5mac]