How to effectively search for apps on/without using Google Play? Okay, so basically the Google Play store search is only for typing in the exact name of the app you already know and want to install.

Every time I look for an app with certain functionality, Im having great problems in finding it. Usually the results contain tons of spam applications and very few of usefull ones, or ones actually fitting the search keywords I used. Sometimes I find the apps I was looking for while browsing the store (hundreds of pages...) or digging through "top xx apps for yy" sites that usually come as a result of a regular google search.

My question is - are there any alternatives? How do I search for Android apps that do what I want them to do without digging through hundreds of pages of crappy, unrelated apps at Google Play or reading lists of hundreds of apps on silly web pages whose sole purpose is advertisement? I've read that there once was something called Chomp, but it seems like it doesn't exist any more (not sure, I think Apple bought it).
Try combined search words to narrow down the result list. If you e.g. look for an alarm reminder, "alarm reminder" gives you 1.000+ results -- while "alarm-reminder" (note the "minus" replacing the space) shrinks it to 48, relating to both terms (and not just either one of them).

Sometimes also the rules from Google's main search engine apply here (I could not yet figure out when they do and when they don't). So "alarm +reminder" should list only apps whose name/description contains both terms -- while "alarm -reminder" should list only those containing "alarm" but not "reminder". As said, this works sometimes, while the first rule mentioned seems to work always.

I just tested it, and surprisingly even some more advanced keywords work: "clock +intitle:alarm" really lists only apps having "alarm" in their name (and "clock" in their name or description; though this I did not verify completely). I suspect the playstore search is just a "customized Google search" -- so you might play with other "tipps and tricks" from its "big brother".