The most common words used in 1-star and 5-star App Store reviews

Filed under: Fun, Apple, Mobile

I'm not quite sure if this one counts as 'news', and you'll probably want the 30 seconds of your life back afterwards, but anyway: Marco Arment (of Tumblr and Instapaper fame) has compiled a list of the most commonly used words in 1- and 5-star App Store reviews.

In true American style, awesome and worth are at the top of the 5-star list. As Marco points out, it's very nice to see simple so high in the 5-star list, but words like ever, never and done are a bit odd. I don't have an iOS device, so I can only guess, but are people writing reviews that read 'This app is awesome. I don't know how I ever got along without it. I will never leave home without it'? And where does touch figure into positive reviews? I hope it comes from 'it also works on my iPod touch!'...

The bad-review list reads like a litany of woe: waste and money come first, quickly followed by crashes, useless, deleted and stupid.

Interestingly, both lists emphasize cost and value: i.e. when an app works well, it's 'worth its weight in gold', but when it doesn't work, an app is 'a useless waste of money'. As Marco highlights, though, talking about the price when you've paid hundreds of dollars for the device itself is a little silly.

My favourite word, if you're wondering, is right at the end of the 1-star review list: Apple.

The most common words used in 1-star and 5-star App Store reviews originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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