uTest's Bug Battle Uncovers More Than 300 Bugs in Top Twitter Desktop Apps

uTest, the world’s largest software testing marketplace, today announced the results of its Twitter Apps Bug Battle. More than 600 uTesters from 29 countries around the world competed in the quarterly contest to find bugs in the top Twitter desktop apps. uTesters also ranked the apps for overall quality, usability and feature set, with Tweet Deck coming out on top, followed closely by Seesmic Desktop and Twhirl.

Over the course of one week in June, a total of 317 bugs were found across five apps (see report for details). The uTest community classified 20 percent as “show stoppers,” which are defined as defects in need of immediate attention. The final Bug Battle results include:

Tweet Deck

• 77 bugs reported
• 13 percent classified as “showstoppers”
• 30 percent were Technical, 56 percent were Functional, and 14 percent were GUI

Seesmic Desktop

• 80 bugs reported
• 20 percent classified as “showstoppers”
• 31 percent were Technical, 50 percent were Functional, and 19 percent were GUI

Twhirl

• 61 bugs reported
• 16 percent classified as “showstoppers” and 33 percent as “high severity”
• 44 percent were Technical, 38 percent were Functional, and 18 percent were GUI

"Twitter users skyrocketed from 1.6 to 32.1 million users this year,” said uTest VP of Marketing, Matt Johnston (@matjohnston). “Since filtering tweets is of top concern, sophisticated Twitter desktop apps are also booming. With this Bug Battle, uTest has once again demonstrated how quickly the tester community can mobilize and provide global testing coverage for the most cutting-edge apps.”

uTest also conducted a usability survey, asking professional testers to compare the overall quality, usability, and feature set of the Twitter desktop apps. The complete Bug Battle results are available at http://www.utest.com/bugbattle/Q209/results.

Some of the top-line findings include:

• 66 percent of respondents rated both Tweet Deck and Seesmic Desktop as either 'good' or 'very good' leading the way for overall quality.
• 72 percent of the testers gave Twhirl high rankings for usability.
• Testers with more than 3 years experience overwhelmingly favored Tweet Deck across all categories.

Most valuable features across apps:

• Easy access to Twitter actions such as Retweet (RT), Favorite, Reply, and Direct Message
• Filtering by groups, both multi-account and multi-column management
• Column or tab support for multiple searches, including trend searches

Most common complaints across apps:

• The location and grouping of the menu icons within the apps are not intuitive to the functionality to which they are related. (50 percent of respondents suggested adding a help menu or tool tips.)
• Applications consume too much memory (especially Tweet Deck) and compromise performance.

The top tester of the uTest Bug Battle was Bernard Lelchuk of Israel, who reported the most valuable bugs and provided the best testing feedback, according to the uTest judges. Nearly $4000 in prize money was awarded to those reporting best bugs and best feedback. Other top winners include: Joseph Ours who received the Top US Tester award and Tyler Ritchie who received the Top New Tester award.

uTest holds a Bug Battle each quarter, and is currently soliciting recommendations for future Bug Battle subjects on its blog: http://blog.utest.com.