Posted on January 8th, 2010 in
Software Testing Trends,
Testing - Web Apps by Mike Brown
When the dust settled on our Battle of the E-Tailers last month, Amazon.com performed exceptionally well – scoring high marks for its usability, feature set and a host of other categories. In fact, 74% of our testers said they trusted Amazon most for their holiday shopping in the post-Bug Battle survey.
But despite the fact that hundreds of testers were scouring their site for flaws, at least one MAJOR software bug went unnoticed: a $3 billion validation error, as recently reported by NetworkWorld.
Apparently, a Californian software engineer in the market for a Discovery Channel ‘Cells’ CD-ROM was able to find an edition on Amazon. No surprises here. The only problem (aside from the fact it only runs on Windows 98), was that the price tag for the item was about $3 billion. Plus $3.99 shipping and handling, of course. Seeing the price, and knowing full well that Amazon would settle the issue in a fair and timely manner, he decided to purchase the item on a lark. Here’s his first hand account:
Read more…
Posted on December 8th, 2009 in
Media Coverage & Events,
uTest by Jennifer Moebius
Breaking news! This week, we officially announced the results of our Q4 Bug Battle – Battle of the E-Tailers – along with a few prominent media outlets, including USA Today, Fast Company, Mashable! and eWeek.
Curious about the results? Check out the articles below:
So, the battle begs the question: Which e-tailer do you trust the most?
Posted on December 7th, 2009 in
Tester Community,
uTest by Mike Brown
The Battle of the E-Tailers – our latest bug-hunting competition – is now one for the history books! Over the course of a
week in November, a total of 505 bugs were reported in three of the world’s top online retailers: Amazon, Walmart and Target. For complete details, be sure to check out the Q4 Bug Battle Report.
While millions of shoppers were making leisurely holiday purchases, our global community of testers were hard at work – reporting a wide range of functional, usability and GUI bugs, as well as providing user feedback. In doing so, you’ve once again demonstrated the value of comprehensive testing performed by skilled professionals. Well done!
The media, by the way, are all over this story, so we’ll be sure to provide a wrap-up of all the news coverage later this week.
To the Victors Go the Spoils
The prize for Top Tester went to Brad Sellick of Canada, while Tuyen Tran of Vietnam took home the new Judge’s Choice Award. Other cash-prize winners included Gaurang Joshi and Ranchhod Prajapati (both of India) for Best Bugs, as well as Gizem Sahin (Turkey) and Jaya Dinu (US) in the Best Feedback category. There were over 30 winners in this quarter’s competition, so be sure to check out the results page for the complete list.
And now, a few more top-line findings:
Read more…
Posted on November 11th, 2009 in
Tester Community,
uTest by Mike Brown
After almost a full week of bug-hunting, we’re now in the final stretch of the Battle of the E-Tailers, with less than 12 hours to go!
As this post is being written, 100+ testers from around the world have already submitted more than 500 bugs in Walmart.com, Amazon.com and Target.com – another remarkable display of talent from our testing community.
But it’s not over yet. There’s still time to complete your last-minute holiday bug hunting, so be sure to sign in to the uTest platform and get cracking. Remember, our judges are more interested in quality over quantity when it comes to the bugs. In other words, one great bug is all it takes, as evidenced by our past winners.
If you can’t find any bugs to submit – but still want a chance to win cash for the usability survey – then raise your hand in this uTest Forums thread. After all, there’s nearly $4,000 in prize money at stake, so what do you have to lose?
Thanks to all those who have submitted bugs for the competition, and good luck to the remaining participants.
Posted on November 6th, 2009 in
Tester Community,
uTest by Matt Johnston
Quick update from the (bug) battlefield: We’re 40 hours into our Q4 Bug Battle competition between Amazon, Walmart.com and Target.com, and we’ve already had almost 200 bugs reported by 60+ testers from around the globe. It’s still early (the competition ends Wednesday, November 11 at 11:59 ET), but this is already shaping up to be one of our best Bug Battles ever.
Bug Battles are available to all members of our community. You can get more details in our uTest-only forums. To participate in the Bug Battle, just sign in to your uTest account.
Posted on November 5th, 2009 in
Tester Community,
uTest by Mike Brown
Long lines, screaming kids, rude employees, rip-off prices, poor selections – all things of holiday’s past. That’s because virtually every major retailer has now set up shop online. But just because holiday shopping can be done from the comfort of one’s own living room, doesn’t mean there aren’t complications (i.e. bugs). To prove our point, we’ve 
decided to make E-tailers the subject of this quarter’s uTest Bug Battle.
Here they are, in no particular order:
Amazon.com
Walmart.com
Target.com
The competition – which kicked off at midnight – will give testers one week to search these sites for the most compelling bugs, and to report them through our online platform. And as usual, we’ll be dishing out more than $3,000 in prize money based on:
- Top overall tester (based on the quality of bugs and feedback)
- Top novice tester (same criteria)
- Top individual bugs in each of the sites (most interesting, most severe, best documented)
- Best survey responses (comparing the feature set, functionality and usability)
Read more…
