My wishlist for Google Play Store

I have been using Android devices for many years.  I love the phones and tablets as I have more control over what it has and does than other products.  I will admit it isn't perfect and some makers do put on crap-ware that is difficult if not impossible to remove, but, for the most part it just works and in low end devices.

The only issue I have is with the Play store.  For the most part it isn't bad when selecting categories and if you want 'free' or 'paid'.  I am surprised though that the company that made it big in search doesn't have a good search function in the play store.  When I go to look for a specific area or product I usually need to wade through page after page of apps before I find what I want.  This isn't just for apps, I have the same issue when looking for books and movies too.  My wish list for filters would be:

• Author
• Last update (range of values)
• Rating (range of values)
• Number of ratings (range of values)
• Cost (range of values)
• Ad-supported
• Include or exclude apps I have already installed

It would be nice to have a permanent filter too.  There are times I know certain companies/people make crap-ware that I have no interest in seeing.  Also it would be nice to toggle Boolean functions (and, or, not) for the categories.

I was looking for a household inventory app so I can record what we own, what room, serial number (or bar-code), photo, cost and notes.  There were too many to quickly go through.  For those that looked interesting I checked to see when the last update was.  Not being fair, but, if it wasn't updated in the last year I am not interested as there is a chance the author abandoned the app.  It took me almost an hour to wade through a lot of crap and what was there didn't fit what I was looking for.  A lot of listings were for insurance companies and I didn't want to see those.  I don't have a problem paying for an app, but, it would be nice if they had a free-to-try limited version of the app so I can see if it would fit what I need and then pay them after.  I did that for the DVD library app 'Movie Collection + Inventory' by Metosphere.  It had a free option and after a quick try I paid for the full version.  When I get some free time I will be checking out the book collection app.  This is the model I prefer, try it first, buy it second if I like it.

One other option is do what I do best, write a quick and dirty program or a create a spreadsheet to store the information.  I originally did a quick-and-dirty spreadsheet for the DVD library until I found the app I liked and then imported a lot of data.  I try to keep things simple and LibreOffice has a great spreadsheet and it allows me to export out to various formats (like PDF and CSV).