Follow All 3 to Win a Wii, a PS3, a Boxee, an Xbox 360 and $2011 in More Prizes!

We can’t believe it but we are weeks away from 2011, and to kick off the new year in proper style, we’re going to have one last amazing contest this year. Here’s your final chance this year to win a Wii, an iPad, Cash and more!

In light of the holidays, we’ve made this contest easy! All you have to do is follow uTest on all 3 social networks and let us know with a simple tweet.

RULES:
1. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and become a fan on Facebook
2. Tweet to @uTest with hash tag #FollowedAll3
3. Include your top three prizes (from grab bag below) in your tweet. That’s it!

(e.g. @uTest I want to win the iPad, Xbox 360 or Cash! #FollowedAll3)

Each week (for the next four weeks!), we will draw two names from all tweets containing the hash tag, #FollowedAll3. You can tweet once a day (to increase your chances). All winners then have the opportunity to choose one prize from our grab bag below (first come, first serve). And because we’re so excited to start the new year, the eight prizes add up to $2011! Here’s the grab bag:

Happy 2011 everyone! The contest will run from Mon, December 13 — Fri, January 7 @ 5pm ET. As the prizes are chosen, we will list the winners and cross out the prizes right in this post (e.g. iPad ($400) Winner: @jennymoebius). Make sure to check back in to the blog to see if YOU are the lucky winner! We will also contact winners by DM on Twitter.

Congratulations to all the winners!!!

Official terms and conditions

Are You In The ‘In Crowd’? LinkedIn Launches Company Pages

While social media is uber-important to us here at uTest, it plays a huge role when building any successful online community or crowdsourcing business model. The social web has led to a dramatic increase in online platforms that solve real business problems and enable social and business connections.

With all that in mind, uTest — along with HP, Dell, Microsoft, AT&T, FedEx, JetBlue, Samsung and others — was among the very first businesses to showcase their products on LinkedIn’s new Company Product Pages (launched yesterday 11/2/10).

LinkedIn has more than 80 million members worldwide and launched Company Pages to make it easier for businesses to engage with all these professionals with a dynamic, content-rich profile of record. In addition to product and service recommendations, businesses can display videos, featured product information and targeted ads on their Company Pages to drive engagement and interaction.

It’s still in the works, but check out our company services page here and recommend us if you feel inclined!
(And be sure to Follow Us On LinkedIn – it’s the only way into the ‘in crowd’ ;) .)

Social Networks Pose Security Threats (& An Intro to Tina Fey’s YouFace)

It’s no surprise to our community that social networks have the potential to pose big security threats this year. During the “Battle of the Social Networks,” uTesters found a combined 718 bugs in Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn; and an additional 300+ bugs were discovered in the top five Twitter desktop apps during the Q2 bug battle.

To add more fuel to the fire, today the company Sophos, which surveyed 500+ organizations, came out with a new report stating that in the past year:

  • 57% of users report they have been spammed via social networking sites
  • 36% of users claim they’ve been sent malware via social networking sites
  • 72% of survey respondents think social networks are a danger for their companies (see Mashable article)

What’s the solution? Tina Fey, in her show “30 Rock,” recently spoofed social networks with her creation of “YouFace” (combo of Facebook & MySpace). Terms such as “finger-tagged,” “weirdsie,” and “pho-lo” (for photo and hello) had many ROFL. See video clip after the bump!

Read more…

uTest @ Under The Radar

What do Flickr, LinkedIn, Pandora and uTest all have in common?  Before they hit it big, they were invited to share their ideas at Dealmaker Media’s Under The Radar conference – the premier event for up-and-coming startups.

As part of the “Applications Track” segment, Doron Reuveni, our fearless leader, will be discussing the future of crowdsourced software testing (uTest of course) this Friday in Mountain View, California. Out of hundreds of applicants, uTest will be one of twenty-four companies presenting their ideas for a select audience of entrepreneurs, investors and technology journalists.

Now in its eleventh year, Under The Radar has catapulted many of its past attendees (well, not literally) to much greater successes.  In fact, over the past three years, companies selected to present at the conference have gone on to raise more than $1.36 billion in funding, or an average of $14 million per company.

And so although we view our community as the future of software testing, we’re more than happy to be under the radar (for now anyway).

Bug Battle Builds Big Buzz

Apologies for the alliteration, but things have been ultra-busy around the halls of uTest this week.  The reason our phones have been ringing off the hook is because we announced the results of our 1st Quarter Bug Battle on Tuesday.

In case you missed it, we’ve received some fantastic media coverage in the past few days.  Who knew the world would be so interested in the results of 1,000+ QA professionals from 64 countries simultaneously testing the world’s three most popular networking sites?  Ok, well we had a pretty good idea they’d care, but we’re glad it captured their attention.  Here are a few of the noteworthy articles:

- TechCrunch: uTest Bug Battle: Which Social Network Is The Buggiest?
- Dr. Dobbs: Bugs In Social Networking Software? You’re Kidding, Right?
- eWeekFacebook Triumphs LinkedIn, MySpace in uTest’s Bug Battle

Our community’s ability to mobilize quickly and provide real-world testing coverage is making a strong impression on a growing number of companies.  These firms are looking for ways to do more with less — and the uTest community is primed to help them meet their QA needs.  Keep up the good work!

Bug Battle Winners!

Tomorrow we’re going to announce some very interesting findings and discoveries from the social networking Bug Battle, but today we want to highlight the winners.

Top Tester ($1,000) – Ranchhod Prajapati India
Top Novice ($750) – Evan Dinsmore Canada
Top USA Tester ($500) - Supraja Addala Prasad USA

LinkedIn:

Best Bug ($200) – Ranchhod Prajapati India
Best Feedback ($200) – Suriyaprabha Jeevagan USA

MySpace:

Best Bug ($200) – Jegan Surya India
Best Feedback ($200) – Supraja Addala Prasad USA

Facebook:

Best Bug ($200) – Evan Dinsmore Canada
Best Feedback ($200) – Lucia Maldonado Aregentina (repeat winner!)

The uTest community submitted some really great bugs and feedback for this competition and picking winners from such a great list of submissions was incredibly difficult. Our community really knows their stuff, and we were all amazed at the incredible quality and quantity of bugs that were submitted.

I want to congratulate all of the testers who participated and we hope to see you in the next Bug Battle. Until then, happy testing!

The Social Network Bug Battle Has Begun!

Our Bug Battle of the Social Networks is now open and running.  Starting on Wed, Feb 11th, uTesters can test the quality, features and usability of MySpace, LinkedIn, and Facebook.  The top testers will receive prizes ranging from $200 to $1,000 for showing us the best bugs and feedback — more than $3,500 in total prize money!

Visit our Bug Battle homepage for more details.  Also, make sure you read our Tips to Win the Bug Battle.

So if you’re a uTester, get started today.  And if you’re not yet a uTester, join our community and take part in the fun.  Good luck!

Bug Battle

It’s Bug Battle Time: Facebook vs. LinkedIn vs. MySpace

In Q4, we held our first-ever Bug Battle — the “Battle of the Browsers”.  This QA contest yielded 672 bugs within IE, Firefox, and Chrome.  1,300+ testers participated and uTest awarded nearly $3,000 in prize money.  Now it’s time for our next Bug Battle challenge.

After a great deal of discussion with bloggers, analysts and members of our testing community, we’ve selected a fun and high-profile “battleground”:  Social networking sites.

Join other uTesters from around the world in testing the application quality and usability of the top three social networks:  Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace.

The contest begins Wednesday, Feb 11th and runs through Tuesday, Feb 17th.  uTest will once again be awarding $3,000 in prize money for:

  • Top overall tester (based on quantity and quality of bugs and feedback)
  • Top novice tester (same criteria)
  • Top individual bugs in each of the sites (highest profile, most interesting, most severe)
  • Best feedback (about the feature set, functionality and usability)

See complete details for the uTest Social Networking Bug Battle.  Get ready to hunt some bugs, make some serious money, and be recognized as one of the top testers in the community!

Have questions or ideas for future Bug Battles?  Drop us a comment.