Wakoopa's First "The State of Apps" Report

[app103]

Since its inception, wakoopa has logged over 525 million hours of software usage data from 75,000 members and 200,000 applications.

Wakoopa users, have also shared more than 3 million application recommendations to date.

The site has released their first report on usage trends in desktop software and web applications, covering the first quarter of 2009. Since wakoopa users are considered early technology adopters by nature, this data is being regarded as an important marker for future trends.

And with the recent release of their Linux tracker, things should be even more interesting, in future reports.

http://blog.wakoopa.com/2009/04/27/the-state-of-apps-q1-2009/

Additional info & insight into their report:

TechCrunch
Giga Om
VentureBeat
PRWeb

[wraith808]

One important thing to remember when looking at this information is the fact that it's 'geek slanted', i.e. most of the people using Wakoopa would classify themselves as geeks/early adopters.  After all is Joe Computer User going to go to Wakoopa and install it on his Wal-Mart PC?  I don't think so...

[app103]

I think you may have missed the point. Who cares what Joe Computer user will be running today? Wouldn't you like to have a crystal ball that can see what he will be running in about 2-3 years from now?

This is the data that predicts what is the next big thing, and what is on its way out the door.

The fact that Joe Computer User won't install wakoopa on his Wal-Mart PC is a good thing. The data they are collecting today can be a pretty good predictor of what Joe Computer User will and won't be using in about 2-3 years.

Remember something, it's not the idea that Joe Computer User will be using this service, it's the idea that what the wakoopa users (the trend setting early adopters) are flocking to today, will be what he will be using tomorrow.

And what they are moving away from today, he will be moving away from tomorrow.

It's not the wakoopa tracker that is important, it is what and who it's tracking.

For instance, if 25% of wakoopa users use Twitter and the number is growing, it's safe to say that twitter usage will continue to rise for awhile. But there is another stat that's important, and that most of wakoopa's twitter users use the service through desktop apps, which means Twitter's business model better put it's hope in something other than ads on their site, if they want to survive. And knowing that, if they do decide to go with ad banners, advertisers should know that a great chunk of Twitter's userbase will never see them.

[wraith808]

I don't think that's really missing the point.  Just because twitter is in use today doesn't mean that twitter will even be in use 5 years from now, even if the cutting edge users are using it.  Look at the linked articles- they are referring to them as trends and things that microsoft should be very concerned about.  The bleeding edge has never formed an indicator of what the mainstream trends will be as far as computer use is concerned other than in very basic categories IMO, and I think that trends show this to be true in a general use case.  In hardware such an argument that you pose does hold true- in software not so much, I don't think.

[fenixproductions]

Interesting article but something else bothers me: is Wakoopa tool working on PC all of the time? Does it report loaded software continuously?

For me it is very strange that in times of spyware fighting, ads and cookies blocking, there are 75k members who allows themselves to be "tracked" willingly in the meaning of "socialising"? Come on!

I know I have nothing against making a list of software I use or even running some logging system and update it to server later but having "tracker" in background as long as I use my PC sounds fishy. I know I might be paranoid here but it's at least users' hypocrisy from my point of view.

PS. I wonder how many users have something like "crack.exe" in their stats

[wreckedcarzz]

Interesting article but something else bothers me: is Wakoopa tool working on PC all of the time? Does it report loaded software continuously?

...

PS. I wonder how many users have something like "crack.exe" in their stats

Yes, it runs and tracks constantly (unless you close it, of course). It uploads stats every couple hours to update your profile. I like it because it is interesting to see my work-to-play ratio (work being anything non-gaming, ex: Firefox, OpenOffice, Postbox, Visual Studio, etc) as well as being able to find new programs related to ones that I am using that may be better suited to what I need.

And you would be surprised at the number of keygens and cracks I have seen on profiles; Wakoopa even has a generic "Keygen" program page... not that you would find that on my stats.

(Interesting that the Keygen page has a download button... )

Also, on a related note, Wakoopa Tracker for Linux came out last week. You can see it tracking Nautilus and GNOME Terminal, as well as some other things, if you look at my stats overview.

[wraith808]

Yes, it runs and tracks constantly (unless you close it, of course). It uploads stats every couple hours to update your profile. I like it because it is interesting to see my work-to-play ratio (work being anything non-gaming, ex: Firefox, OpenOffice, Postbox, Visual Studio, etc) as well as being able to find new programs related to ones that I am using that may be better suited to what I need.

That's what I use it for also.  The fact that you're in control is one of the reasons it doesn't bother me.  Though what does bother me is the fact that there's no way to block someone from following you...

[app103]

It's not spyware because

1. You have the option to install it or not. It does not sneak onto your computer or come bundled with anything.
2. You have the option to run it or not.
3. While running it, you have the option to allow it to track or not.
4. You have the option to not allow it to track web apps.
5. You can hide any data you don't want shown, any application you don't want anyone to know you are using.
6. You can hide your whole profile and keep it private, for your eyes only.
7. You can delete all your data from your account. (I exported my data and deleted it to start fresh, when I got a new pc)
8. You can delete your account, itself.

Though what does bother me is the fact that there's no way to block someone from following you...

Are you aware that people can follow you without you knowing it (if your profile is public), just by subscribing to your RSS feeds? Even if you could block a user on the site, what would be the point if he could just grab your public feeds and follow you from a feed reader, rather than the dashboard?

Of course if you make your profile private, they can still follow you but there would be no point in it. They can't see your data and you have no public feeds.

[wraith808]

Though what does bother me is the fact that there's no way to block someone from following you...

Are you aware that people can follow you without you knowing it (if your profile is public), just by subscribing to your RSS feeds? Even if you could block a user on the site, what would be the point if he could just grab your public feeds and follow you from a feed reader, rather than the dashboard?

Of course if you make your profile private, they can still follow you but there would be no point in it. They can't see your data and you have no public feeds.

They could password protect the RSS feed also.  I don't mind people following me, but there's been a strange occurrence of people from strange countries starting to follow me that makes me think that perhaps people are attempting to use it in ways not intended.  Perhaps if not password protect it, obscure it with a generated number rather than your username on the RSS feed.  There are options they could take... and twitter does it currently (at least the block following part) so IMO it's not too much to ask.