uTest's Bug Battle Uncovers More Than 700 Bugs in 3 Leading Web Browsers

uTest, the rapidly growing marketplace for software testing, today announced the results of its "Battle of the Browsers" contest. In all, 1,331 uTesters from 68 countries competed to see who could find bugs in three of the top Web browsers – Internet Explorer 8 (IE), Firefox 3.1 beta and Google Chrome.

Over the course of a week in November, a total of 672 bugs were found. The uTest community identified 101 of those bugs as "showstoppers," which are defined as flaws in need of immediate attention. The final Bug Battle results included:

• 356 uTesters evaluated Internet Explorer 8 and identified 168 bugs, including 9 percent that were classified as showstoppers.
• 514 uTesters evaluated Firefox 3.1 beta and identified 207 bugs, including 24 percent that were classified as showstoppers.
• 461 uTesters evaluated Chrome and identified 297 bugs, including 12 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 Prashanti G. Bharathwaj of India, who reported the most valuable bugs and provided the best testing feedback, according to the uTest judges.

"During this first Bug Battle, the uTest community discovered one bug every 15 minutes in the three leading browsers; the good news, however, is the fact that no 'showstopper' security flaws were found," said Doron Reuveni, CEO of uTest. "As evidenced by these results and the participation of our worldwide community of professional testers, uTest is uniquely positioned to provide the industry with real world, unbiased testing data - information which cannot be found anywhere else."

uTest will hold the Bug Battle on a quarterly basis, evaluating different applications or popular Web sites each time. The company will solicit recommendations for future Bug Battle subjects on its Web site. More detailed results from this first Bug Battle can be found at http://www.utest.com/bug_battle.

As part of the contest, uTest also conducted a survey of Bug Battle participants. Some of the top-line findings include:

• Of 356 uTesters who evaluated Internet Explorer, 87 percent rated its usability as fair or good, with none rating IE usability as excellent.
• Of 514 uTesters who evaluated Firefox, 81 percent rated its usability as fair or good, with an additional 16 percent rating its usability as excellent.
• Of 461 uTesters who evaluated Chrome, 74 percent rated its usability as fair or good, with another 10 percent rating Chrome’s usability as excellent.
• When asked what their preferred browser was, more than half (55 percent) named Firefox; nearly a third (30 percent) said IE; and 6 percent preferred the newly released Chrome.
• 78 percent of the participants specified “software tester” as their profession.