One great way to stay on top of the most popular or latest apps the Android Market has to offers is by using the Market home-screen widget. This widget displays a constant stream of new, noteworthy and/or popular apps, and you never have to actually open the Market to see them since the widget sits on one of your Android home screens.

To enable the Android Market home-screen widget, simply navigate to a home screen with some open space, and then press and hold your display for a second or two until a menu pops up. Next, choose the Android widgets option from the menu, and then scroll down to and select Market. The Android Market widget will then appear on your home screen.

Thanks to an easy-to-navigate ratings and review system, the Android Market makes it fairly simple to read up on applications before your download or purchase them to determine which apps are getting the most positive feedback--and which downloads are not so well received.

Before you buy or download an application it's a good idea to search around a bit for similar or alternatives apps that may serve the same purpose, and then see which of those apps have the highest ratings.