Friday, July 25, 2008

Broadcast Your Software Use...

It seems to be a growing urge of many people to broadcast their every move and thought, no matter how mundane, mediocre, or uninspiring. Twitter seems to have built a successful business model on this (I use it too).

I recently came across a site, however, that allows you to broadcast a different side of yourself that might be revealing in a different way. Wakoopa.com allows you to broadcast a list of the software you use. So that means if you are only using that $2,000 dollar laptop to play Solitaire, using Wakoopa will let the secret out to everyone.

Users of Wakoopa can put widgets on their blogs or websites showing their most frequently used software, recently used software, and newly used software.
Software trackingSoftware trackingSoftware tracking

Sure, this might be useful to you if only out of the egotistical, yet altruistic sense that you use the most cutting edge software and must perform the public service of sharing your program choices with the wide world. However, it is the ability to see what other people are using that makes this web service really shine.

When you visit Wakoopa.com, you will immediately see a scrolling section on the homepage. The scroll displays programs being used by all Wakoopa at that time (see movie below). The useful part of this is that as you hover over a program icon, you will see the name of the program. If you click the icon, you are directed to a page that tells you what that program is for. It is a great way to find out about programs people are using that you might not be aware of. You can also see crawls of other users and your own programs.



Wakoopa will also make recommendations to you based on the software you use. Essentially, the recommendations are alternative programs to those that you are using. Again, this can be a great way to learn more about what is available. Maybe there is a free or open source alternative to a pricey program you are using. If no one knows you are using that program, how would you know? Wakoopa can tell you.

I am very impressed with this software after using it for only a few hours. I think it is a fairly new idea and think that it could definitely bear fruit for software users.