• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, October 1, 2009

Mobile application store GetJar has launched a service that helps people to find the right version of an app for their phone. The aim is to eliminate confusion from the process for consumers and promote wider distribution of apps for publishers, brands and mobile developers.

Using GetJar's App Download Page, they can send visitors from their mobile sites to Web pages that automatically detect their device and direct them to the appropiated version of an app in the GetJar store.

"ADP in a nutshell is not much more than a link that resides on a mobile page, and when a user clicks that link it takes them to a hosted page on GetJar to download the app," said Patrick Mork, the company's vice president of marketing.

A trial of the new service with Facebook is already showing results. By adding a link to its mobile site prompting users to click through to download its mobile app, the social network has generated 8.5 million downloads since early August, up from 2 million before. In addition to offering the Facebook app, the landing page also invites users to browse other free apps and games at GetJar.

In the next two months, photo- and video-sharing site Photobucket will also adopt the App Download Page service, according to Mork. He added that GetJar is also speaking with other publishers and marketers about using it to drive app downloads. "There's a fair amount of interest, especially from brands that have a lot of mobile traffic," said Mork. "From a marketers' standpoint, it's a very simple tool."

If a company has no mobile app to promote, GetJar provides a free Mobile Site Shortcut (MSS), a small application that launches any phone's native Web browser and redirects it to the appropriate mobile site. "This way we ensure that users get at least something on their phone," said Mork.

With offices in Lithuania, London and San Mateo, Calif., GetJar offers a catalog of 50,000 apps across all major devices and mobile operating systems in 200 countries. The company received $6 million in venture funding from Accel Partners in 2007.