There has been a bit of a controversy on the iTunes App Store since its launch. As many observers noted over the last several days, certain App store merchants were adding spaces to the front of their application titles to catapult themselves to the front of the "Sort By: Name" list. There were other tactics involved as well; some developers were adding things like $.99 and then their application's name to accomplish the same result.

If you visit the store this morning, however, you will find that those applications are no longer listed on the first alphabetical page. As MacUser has pointed out, the applications have been put back into their rightful place in line. Now that all peace and harmony has been restored to the listings, we have to wonder just how much extra money the practice brought in for the perpetrators. Were the monetary benefits worth the amount of ill will they undoubtedly received? Would you have done the same thing? Should Apple have intervened sooner?

With this problem solved, Apple can move onto the next complaint from developers: the review system.