Guest Blogger: Matt McInerney of Pixelspread.com.

The idea of Wakoopa is this: you sign up for the site, you download a small program, and run it to keep track of the software you use. The end result is that the information is displayed on your profile page, as well as added to the Wakoopa database so that it can be displayed on the most popular applications, the most time used, and so on. Sounds like an interesting idea, right? However, after playing with it for a little while, I’ve come to this conclusion: it’s completely impractical.

The main use I see from this is the data collected, to be able to see the most popular programs used. The problem is that the result is pretty predictable. The most popular will be browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer, followed by Messanging clients, Office suites, and of course, World of Warcraft. The reason I would think anyone would be interested is to find apps they could maybe use, but if the list consists of apps you’re already using, who cares? Iusethis.com already exists and is far more useful.

Alright, so maybe you want to use it to actually track yourself. Find out what how much time you’re spending in programs. Again, the impracticality of running tracking software comes into play. Also, don’t you pretty much already know how much time you spend in your programs? If you’re a Twitter addict, yes, Twitterrific is going to get a lot of time tracked. Firefox definitely. Probably Photoshop if you’re a designer So far, it hasn’t surprised me.
Finally, this is the reason why your mother told you that white lies are okay. At the end of the day, you’re only going to discover that you’re less productive than you thought you were. I’d rather just lie to myself a little bit and tell myself that Mail.app was open a lot more than Twitterrific… even if that may not be the case.