uTest's Bug Battle Uncovers More Than 700 Bugs in Social Networking Sites

uTest, the world’s largest software testing marketplace, today announced the results of its social networking Bug Battle. In all, 1,119 uTesters from 64 countries around the world competed in the quarterly contest to find bugs in the three top social networking platforms – Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace.

Over the course of one week in February, a total of 718 bugs were found. The uTest community classified 84 of those bugs as “showstoppers,” which are defined as flaws in need of immediate attention. The final Bug Battle results included:

• 416 uTesters evaluated Facebook and identified 243 bugs, including 14.40 percent that were classified as showstoppers.
• 399 uTesters evaluated LinkedIn and identified 250 bugs, including 9.78 percent that were classified as showstoppers.
• 304 uTesters evaluated MySpace and identified 225 bugs, including 10.80 percent that were classified as showstoppers.

The overall winner of the uTest Bug Battle - and recipient of $1,000 in prize money from uTest - was Ranchhod Prajapati of India, who reported the most valuable bugs and provided the best testing feedback, according to the uTest judges. Other top winners included:

• Evan Dinsmore of Canada who received the Top Novice award and $750.
• Supraja Addala Prasad of the U.S. who received the Top USA award and $500.

"The response of the uTest community to this Bug Battle challenge surpassed our expectations," said Doron Reuveni, CEO of uTest. "These quarterly competitions are a lot of fun, but they also demonstrate how quickly the uTest community can scale up and provide global testing coverage. It’s this capability that enables uTest to satisfy our customers' needs for fast, effective testing for their web and mobile apps."

uTest will continue to hold one Bug Battle each quarter, evaluating and comparing different applications or popular Web sites each time. The company will solicit recommendations for future Bug Battle subjects on its Web site.

uTest also conducted a user survey of Bug Battle participants, asking them to compare the usability, quality and overall feature set of Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace. The complete Bug Battle results are available at http://www.utest.com/bug_battle/Q109. Some of the top-line findings include:

• More than 87 percent of respondents rated Facebook as either 'good' or 'very good' in terms of quality.
• 78 percent of the testers gave Facebook high marks for usability.
• LinkedIn ranked first in terms of overall quality, with 45 percent of the total vote.
• Testers with more than 3 years experience overwhelmingly favored LinkedIn for every category.
• The survey showed MySpace to have a loyal user base, with 40 percent of those who tested the site saying they would recommend it to their friends.
• At least 17 percent of all respondents ranked MySpace first in terms of quality, usability and feature sets.
• 17 percent of uTesters involved in the battle had more than five years of experience in software testing.
• 42 percent of participants had more than three years of software testing experience.