uTest, Inc. is a venture-funded software testing

Software testing

Software testing is an investigation conducted to provide stakeholders with information about the quality of the product or service under test. Software testing can also provide an objective, independent view of the software to allow the business to appreciate and understand the risks of software...

 marketplace based in Southborough, Massachusetts

Southborough, Massachusetts

Southborough is an affluent town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It incorporates the smaller villages of Cordaville, Fayville, and Southville. Its name is often informally shortened to Southboro, a usage seen on many area signs and maps. Its population was 9,767 at the 2010...

.

History

The company was incorporated in August 2007 by founders Doron Reuveni and Roy Solomon. It was backed by venture capital

Venture capital

Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...

 firms Longworth Partners and Egan Managed Capital.

Products and services

uTest offers functional, usability and load & performance testing for web, mobile and desktop software applications.

Strategy

uTest’s business model is based on the idea that crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community through an open call....

 is better suited to web and mobile app testing than other outsourcing models. With crowdsourced testing, the crowd reflects the diversity (e.g. multiple geographic locations, languages spoken) of the apps and users themselves. The uTest community is made up of independent software testers who test applications across:

• Locations
• Languages
• Operating system
• Internet browsers
• Plug-ins and anti-virus programs
• Handset makers, models and wireless carriers (for mobile applications)

How it works

1. Specify testing requirements (by location, OS, browser, app type, etc.)
2. Upload testing scripts through a secure platform
3. View bugs reported by the community
4. Approve, reject or request more information from testers regarding bugs
5. Pay for each completed test cycle

uTest’s platform can be integrated with bug-tracking systems such as Jira, Rally and Bugzilla.

Bug Battle

uTest holds software testing competitions each quarter, called "Bug Battles", where testers from around the world compete for cash prizes by reporting bugs in popular software applications

Application software

Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...

. The company's first Bug Battle occurred in November 2008; the 1,331 software testers who participated reported more than 700 bugs in Google Chrome, Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer

Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...

 and Mozilla Firefox. The second Bug Battle took place in March 2009; the 1,119 software testers who participated reported bugs in Facebook

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

, MySpace and LinkedIn. Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

 applications were the subject of the third Bug Battle in June 2009. Search engines, including Google

Google

Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

, Google Caffeine, Bing and Yahoo, were the subjects of the fourth Bug Battle in August 2009. Most recently, the fifth Bug Battle in December 2009 - Battle of the E-Tailers - compared Amazon.com

Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...

, Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...

.com and Target.com. The study was featured in USA Today

USA Today

USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

 and Fast Company

Fast Company (magazine)

Fast Company is a full-color business magazine that releases 10 issues per year and reports on topics including innovation, digital media, technology, change management, leadership, design, and social responsibility...

. Most recently, the Bug Battle in June 2010 - The Check-In Challenge - compared Foursquare, Gowalla

Gowalla

Gowalla is a location-based social network. Users 'check in' at Spots in their local vicinity, either through a dedicated mobile application or through the mobile website. As a reward users will sometimes receive virtual "items" from check-ins. Items have developed to become a promotional tool for...

 and Brightkite. The report was featured in Mashable

Mashable

Mashable is an American news website and Internet news blog founded by Pete Cashmore. The website's primary focus is social media news, but also covers news and developments in mobile, entertainment, online video, business, web development, technology, memes and gadgets...

 and ZDNet

ZDNet

ZDNet is a business technology news website published by CBS Interactive, along with TechRepublic and SmartPlanet. The brand was founded on April 1, 1991 as a general interest technology portal from Ziff Davis and evolved into an enterprise IT-focused online publication owned by CNET...

.

External links

• uTest
• Software Testing Blog
• Lessons from 10 Recession Startups, by Melanie Lindner, "Forbes", April 4, 2009.
• Crowdsourcing: What It Means for Innovation, by John Winsor, "Business Week", June 15, 2009.
• Crowdsourcing: Now With a Real Business Model!, by Jeff Howe, "Wired
  Wired (magazine)
  Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
  
   Magazine", December 2, 2008.
• The Crowd Is Wise (When It’s Focused), by Steve Lohr, "The New York Times
  The New York Times
  The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
  
  ", July 18, 2009.
• Crowdsourcing Pioneer: Doron Reuveni, by Andrew Muns, "Software Testing & Performance Magazine", September 1, 2009.
• Crowdsourcing: 5 Reasons It's Not Just For Startups Any More, by Dion Hinchcliffe, "www.ebizQ.com", September 25, 2009.
• Study: Amazon Most User Friendly, by Byron Acohido, "USA Today
  USA Today
  USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
  
  ", December 6, 2009.
• Bug Testers: Google is Clean, Bing is Buggy, by Tom Krazit, "CNET
  CNET
  CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...
  
  ", September 15, 2009.
• Amazon Trumps Target, Wal-Mart in Bug Battle, by Kate Rockwood, "Fast Company
  Fast Company (magazine)
  Fast Company is a full-color business magazine that releases 10 issues per year and reports on topics including innovation, digital media, technology, change management, leadership, design, and social responsibility...
  
  ", December 7, 2009.
• Crowdsourcing: How Companies Can Launch Higher-Quality Web and Mobile Applications, by Doron Reuveni, CEO of uTest, "ebizQ.com", January 4, 2010.
• To Crowdsourcing Friends, Foes & Fanatics: Just How Loyal Is Your Community?, by Matt Johnston of uTest, "VentureFizz", May 25, 2010.