Wakoopa, a new start-up based in Amsterdam, Holland, has created a new social network aimed at discovering and sharing what applications people are using. While its user base is relatively small and geek oriented, the network provides useful insight on software usage with a social twist.
According to its creators, Wakoopa is “an online social network that helps people discover the best software, games and web applications on the market. It's the Yellow Pages of software discovery”. One can install the Wakoopa tracker, a 300 to 500 KB installer depending on the operating system (Windows, Mac or Linux), which will inform others on the same social network what software he is using and likewise he can see what they are using.
Data exported by the tracker is subject to some privacy terms. The user can always delete his own data from Wakoopa’s database, he can export the respective data, the account is promised to be kept free of charge and he has granular control about who’s seeing his profile and software usage data.
Wakoopa tracks software usage based on the following categories: Games, Audio & Video, Development, Design, Office, Internet, Utilities, Security. Each category is further divided in many sub-categories. For example, the Development category is composed of the Text Editors & IDEs, Management and Languages & Frameworks sections. Wakoopa provides usage statistics for all of them. Even more, there is additional information on each software program with description, version information, user reviews and even download links in some cases, and similar applications are suggested.
The statistics provided by Wakoopa is based on a pretty small sample of users, less than 100,000 at this point, and the majority are more likely developers. Nonetheless, the data provides an useful insight into the software usage and usage trends:
| Top 10 Applications | Text Editors & IDEs | Languages & Frameworks | Word Processors |
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| Browsers | Anti-virus | Desktop Publishing | Action Games |
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In a few words, Wakoopa’s social network allows everybody with an account to see what software others are using and to discover new applications he was not aware of.