Battle of the Browsers postings are nothing new, but usually are based upon the opinion of a single reviewer. However, if there were cash prizes to uncover bugs in Chrome, FireFox 3.1 and IE8 you might get a broader and more interesting view. Welcome to the Browser Bug Battle…

No browser is perfect, especially those at the cutting edge of web exploration that carry the Beta mark of distinction. Google Chrome will probably be in Beta forever and early adopters will race to get the latest Firefox builds and early peeks at IE8.

Google Chrome has already been patched for a security fix; Firefox recently ran into trouble with Norton users and IE8 is either full of exciting new functionality or a web browser for wankers depending upon your viewpoint.

Now community based software testing outfit uTest has launched a Battle of the Browsers competition, not to find out which is the best but rather which has the most bugs.

Running from November 5th until 12th, the competition has already got off to a good start.

In just the first 12 hours, more than 500 entrants have uncovered a total of 248 new and previously unreported bugs in the three browsers.

Unsurprisingly, Google Chrome leads the bug list of shame at this point.

192 testers have already discovered an astonishing 120 bugs, and remember these have to be new, unknown and the first to be submitted related to any particular subject. Repeat bugs are excluded from the count.

Firefox ranks as the most tested with 222 testers taking part so far. Yet it is running a fair way behind (or in front, depending upon how you look at it) Chrome with 86 bugs uncovered after 12 hours.

The surprise so far is that 148 testers, admittedly the smallest bug hunting team of the three, have only managed to pinpoint 42 bugs in IE8.

uTest state that the goal of the competition is simply “to identify the best tester in our community and gather information surrounding potential browser vulnerabilities.”

It is hoped that by the end of the intensive testing week there will be valuable additional information available for the benefit of the software development and testing community.

All the bugs found will be reported back to the teams at Microsoft, Google and Mozilla with proper credit being given to the tester who found each particular bug. To enter you need to visit the Bug Battle site and register as a tester.

Prizes on offer include USD $200 for each program tested, on the basis of clarity of reports and depth of testing. There are also prizes for the following categories:Specifically, uTest will be looking to find winners in each of the following categories:

Top Tester for the tester who reports the most valuable bugs and feedback.

Top Novice for the newbie tester who shows the most promise in software testing.

Top Bug for the best bug in terms of accuracy, creativity and severity.

Best Feedback for the best feedback provided during the usability survey.

Doron Reuveni, CEO and co-founder at uTest, says “at uTest, we believe strongly in the intrinsic value of healthy competition. The goal is to identify the best tester in our community and gather information surrounding potential browser vulnerabilities. This contest will utilize the wisdom of our uTester crowd and, in doing so; will provide additional information beneficial to the software development and testing communities.”