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Keywords cannot contain names of other apps

Submitted by Dan Fabulich:

We’ve reviewed [app] and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store at this time because of inappropriate ‘Keywords’ used to identify your application.  We will not post applications that reference other applications in their search criteria. It would be appropriate to remove [name of a competitor’s app].”

Keyword terms must be related to your application content and cannot contain offensive terms. It is not appropriate to reference other applications.

This is great news. One popular sales-inflating technique we’ve all seen is to list popular or competing apps in the description field to be included in search queries for them, e.g. “Perfect for fans of Flight Control, Koi Pond, iFart Mobile, and iShoot!” This prohibits such techniques in the Keywords.

Note that this rejection only cites inclusion of such words in the (relatively new) Keywords field. We do not know whether the policy applies, or will be applied, to the Description field.