Apple finally admitted that improvements were needed in helping users locate iPhone apps on the App Store. Developers are now asked to enter up to 255 characters of keywords, separated by commas, which will be used for search in the App Store on the iPhone and iPod touch.

“It is important to enter keywords for all applications as soon as possible so your application can continue to be successfully located on the App Store,” the update from Apple reads. “Keywords can be updated with the submission of a new binary.”

“As you know, today we do it by type of app and also have show popular apps and top-selling apps, et cetera,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook said. “We realize there’s opportunity there for further improvement and are working on that.”

Apple has fixed some problems with the App Store search. For example, a search for “EA,” the brand for Electronic Arts, returned results with 15 games from a company called Digital Chocolate. The reason: In the games’ descriptions, the word “each” was abbreviated to “ea.”. But now, the first 18 results in a search for “EA” are Electronic Arts games. — Techniques like this are likely to be more and more in the aim of Apple as they implement new ways to help the customers to find really relevant apps.