US government launches crap app store – with mobile barcodes

The US government revamped its website overnight. This includes a very poorly organised app store, where you can download 18 mobile “applications” that give you access to government services – including a mobile barcode app that searches for product recalls.

What’s the story?

The Product Recall app works by scanning a product barcode with your phone’s camera. The app then tells you if that product has been recalled, and if so what you should do with it. It’s not just limited to barcodes either – you can search for any product by name, or just browse the list of the most recent recalls.

What else have they got?

There’s a lot of… somewhat boring apps on there. But some of them actually provide useful information that the government has. Since there’s only 18 apps there, it’s tempting to just list them all, but here’s the highlights of apps that might actually useful for Americans:

Alternative Fuel Locator – Find alternative fueling stations nearby.

FEMA Mobile – Respond to and recover from emergency situations.

Find Your Embassy – Find and contact the nearest U.S. Embassy anywhere in the world.

Fuel Economy.gov – Make sure your car is environmentally friendly.

MedlinePlus Mobile – Health information from the government.

My Food-a-Pedia – Count calories and compare foods for healthier choices.

USA.gov Mobile – Federal, state, and local government in the palm of your hand.

UV Index – Practice sun safety – check the UV Index and air quality ratings wherever you are.

See the rest of them here.

What we think?

I think my favourite aspect of this “app store” is that there seems to have been limited forward planning. There’s a mixture of iPhone and Android apps up there – but the majority of these are web-hosted services rather than applications. Many of them are just mobile websites. The Prodcut Recall app, for example, is an Android app but it’s not Market approved, so you have to enable the “Unknown Sources” option. Then there’s the BMI Calculator, which is an iPhone-only app – with no web-hosted equivalent. So, overall, this isn’t a very good store. It needs a lot of work.

Still, it’s interesting to see the generally pretty tech-savvy Obama administration releasing an “app” store. And it’s very nice to see that mobile barcodes have a place there.