Software Testing Blog

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…

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).

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?
- eWeek:  Facebook 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!

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
Top Novice ($750) – Evan Dinsmore
Top USA Tester ($500) - Supraja Addala Prasad

LinkedIn:

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

MySpace:

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

Facebook:

Best Bug ($200) – Evan Dinsmore
Best Feedback ($200) – Lucia Maldonado (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!

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!

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.