The opportunity is really the product of a collision between Desktop and Mobile worlds: the explosive popularity of apps are reshaping the Web’s link graph around the App Store and Android Market sites.

It comes as no surprise that “Popular Apps” listed in the App Store and Android Market pages are driven by app download volume and rating quality. But these app profile pages and app “directories” (like the App Store’s Lifestyle category page) are also webpages.

As search engines continue to index, display, and rank app pages for search-dominant mobile users, app-mania is simultaneously driving  a geometric expansion of the backlinks and social popularity of these ordinary webpages – giving them extraordinary influence over organic search results.

The net effect, based on our own analysis of top ranking mobile iOS apps, appears to be a powerful feedback loop: App Store popularity gets rewarded by incremental Google visibility.

The average user now spends 9% more time using mobile apps than the Internet. In June users spent an average of 81 minutes daily on mobile apps, compared to 74 minutes on the web. This compares to 66 minutes on mobile apps daily in December of 2010, and 70 minutes spent daily on the web. And June, the average user spent just under 43 minutes a day using mobile applications versus an average 64 minutes using the Internet

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Today, its co-founder and CEO Mike McCue confirmed the $50 million round at an eye-popping $200 million valuation, in a wide-ranging interview at the start-up’s Palo Alto, Calif., HQ.

“We’re obviously thrilled, because we think it confirms our focus that people want a beautifully designed way to interact with content and to share it,” he said. “And there is a lot more to come–on a scale of one to 10, we’re just at a two or three.”

Whut??

Image: Appular

It's the two year anniversary of Doodle Jump hitting the iOS App Store, so we hopped on the phone with one half of the team behind the app, Igor Pusenjak.

The $0.99 game has been downloaded 10 million times in 2 years on iPhone and Android, which means it's generated around $7 million in sales after Apple and Google get their cut.

The app is seeing around 500,000 downloads per month on iPhone, which is way up on a year over year basis. As of this writing, Doodle Jump is number 11 in the paid app listings for iPhone/iPod Touch.

Get Satisfaction

Get Satisfaction is a popular general purpose feedback software-as-a-service. In addition to the ability to share ideas, customers can ask questions, report problems and give praise. The ideas section gives users the ability to "like" ideas and leave comments.

Plans with Facebook support start at $49 a month. In addition to Facebook, you can integrate Get Satisfaction with WordPress or use its code to build it into an iOS app.

IdeaScale

IdeaScale is a heavily customizable idea management solution designed for external use. Users can submit ideas, vote them up or down, and leave comments. All paid plans, which start at $15 a month, include Facebook support. Our previous coverage of IdeaScale is here.

Spigit

As mentioned, Spigit just launched its SpigitEngage for Facebook application today. The Oakland Raiders are one of the first customers of the new service. Spigit has traditionally been focused on internal collaboration, so external idea gathering is a new area for the company. The company would not disclose pricing for the service. Our previously coverage of the company is here.

UserEcho

UserEcho is a newer player in this space. It's focused on giving companies the ability to integrate its service across platforms by offering embeddable widgets, an API and of course a Facebook app. The basic plan is free.

UserEcho's feature set looks like Get Satisfaction's - ideas, questions, bugs, thanks and a FAQ section. Uses can vote ideas up and down or comment.

UserVoice

We've covered UserVoice frequently. It has help desk, a powerful API and an SDK for building its service into an iOS app. But most importantly for our purposes, it's a robust idea management solution with a Facebook application. Plans including Facebook support start at $89 a month.

Photo by  Bart

Confession is a Roman Catholic Church approved app that offers an “individual examination of conscience” by letting an iPhone user pick any of the 10 commandments and tick off their sins, before bringing it into the church for absolution. The app features options to add sins over and above the ones listed in the standard examination and provides a confession record of the past in days, months and years.

Photo illustration by The New York Time

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