GoogleTube, Yougle ... whatever you call it, it's been big news on the blogosphere. Heck it's been big news everywhere. Now the question is, you create a great video and post it on YouTube, what do you get out of it? Google now gets tons of eyeballs to look at (and click) ads. Hmm.
Here's a good case in point. This is my favourite YouTube video (okay I don't cruise YouTube much ... but I still love this one):
Now I know Chris (probably why I like it ... naw it's just funny). From the YouTube stats this vid has been viewed 403,789 times, received 1855 comments and has been favourited 2007 times. Wow, that's impressive. What does Chris get? A link to his blog. Now Chris is a smart cookie. He knows how to get the most out of Adsense, but still ...
Now here's an idea. Have a popular video and make sure you blog about it and then you put an ad in the post that you get money for. Kinda like this:
Hmm ... sounds like a good idea to me. How? Qumana lets you easily embed your video into your post (handy Insert HTML button let's you paste that embedding code), our Insert Ad button lets you put your ad in. Don't want to use an editor, that's cool ... we've got the Q-Ads Tool ... does the same thing as the Insert Ad button. Inserting the vid? Well ... I'll be a bit coy ... watch this space.
I find that desktop and online blog editors and publishers like Qumana and Performancing Fox are unable to automatically configure the all new Blogger Beta.
When you perform the same actions you did for your normal blogger blog in Qumana you get an error stating “unable to integrate Blogger API”
All you have to do is, go back a bit and in the manual setup change “http://www.blogger.com/api..” to “http://beta.blogger.com/api…”.
Yes! Introduce a beta instead of www and everything goes fine.
... will by definition mean advertising on your MySpace space.
As everyone who doesn't already know will find out soon, Google and Fox Interactive Media (FIM) have struck a deal whereby Google take over the search and advertising functions for MySpace, which will no doubt focus on delivering advertising into and onto MySpace.
It has to be assumed that part of that deal will be the use of Google Ads in the same way that they are being used by bloggers in the blogosphere.
Fox Interactive Media entered a $900 million search and advertising deal with Google on Monday that will substantially help the News Corp. subsidiary recoup the cost of acquiring the MySpace and IGN Web properties.
Sources report that top News Corp. executives began shaping the agreement while at their annual retreat last week in Pebble Beach, Calif. On Monday afternoon, News Corp. president and chief operating officer Peter Chernin said the final agreement had been signed "less than six hours ago" after several days of concentrated negotiations.
"This deal is the next step in our evolution as a significant interactive player," FIM president Ross Levinsohn said. "Forming a strategic partnership with one of the most innovative companies in the world to expand our business together, monetize our platforms effectively and leverage our combined scale will provide substantial growth for our businesses."
The three-year agreement calls for Google to take over the provision of search and related functions across all FIM sites with the exception of Fox Sports, which is not included because of an outstanding contract with Microsoft's MSN. Many of these functions previously had been provided by Yahoo! Inc.
You just have to believe that MySpace will put Google advertising at the disposal of the millions of MySpace users who create and share whatever it is they share on MySpace.
Just ask Jeneane ... she punked Qumana and MySpace both, by figuring out how to use Qumana and Q-Ads "in reverse", as she described in her recent post Punking Qumana
Ads in MySpace? You can't do that! Yah well, it's my blog, and I don't know all the ins and outs, but I can put keyword ads in MySpace using Qumana in about 1.5 seconds.
Just type your post in Qumana, insert a Q-Ad by clicking the Insert Ad button, the insert your tags, and finally copy the text in Qumana's Source View into your MySpace blog.
Bingo--Your post is formatted, tagged, and even has an ad, all using one copy-and-paste from Qumana. NICE options to have.
Hey, she also mentioned a bunch of other ways she has found to make blogging so much easier using Qumana.
Now, if only MySpace would provide the blogging community with an API so that we wouldn't have to take that last step of copy-and-paste
I was recently at BlogHer, an amazing conference for women bloggers (and some men too) in San Jose. The first day I blogged a lot of the technical sessions. Using Qumana of course. Here I am in action, jotting down notes in very complicated but beautiful bullet lists...
Return to WYSIWYG ... check and adjust line spacing if desired ...
Add italics ... check Categories for this post.
Insert Q-Ads text advertising if desired ... place cursor where you want the ad, click on "Insert Ad", type a keyword (use the customizable banner designer to customize ad), then click OK.
I realize that you need power to run computers. Obviously, after your computer's battery runs out and you can't recharge it, it's hard to keep composing blog posts ...
When there are power outages or other related systems outages that affect the Web but you still have computer power for your individual machine, you can still compose blog posts with Qumana, and save them to be posted later.
George Ou reports that 100-degree weather coupled with widespread power outages have made for a miserable weekend in the Valley. George spent his afternoon assembling a gas generator to power his AC, refrigerator, DSL modem, wireless router and laptop...
Here's how I used to do things before I started using Qumana regularly:
I'd be browsing, and I'd be reading something which triggered a thought and then the desire to blog about it.
I'd leave the page, open my blog page, go to "Post New Entry", which would take me to the blog software's editor (which had taken me a while to learn).
Then, I'd put in a title, and maybe write a sentence or two. I usually quote an excerpt from what I have been reading, so I would have to go back to the web page I was on previously, highlight the excerpt, and then go back to the blog software editor .. where I would paste what I copied.
Then, I write some more to flesh out the post. And then, if I wanted to include some links, I'd have to start the round trips back and forth between the web pages where I would copy the links, then go back to the blog software editor and type in all the <a href> tags, and any WYSIWYG effects such as italics or bold, etc.
And THEN, on top of all that, I would have to preview and proof read, because I am not a hugely accurate typist.
AND THEN ... what if I wanted to include Technorati tags ? I still don't know how to include Technorati tags in a Blogware blog post using the Blogware editor.
Lots of work, demanded lots of concentration ...
Now, using Qumana ... here are my newly developed blogging work habits:
I'm browsing, and I read something which triggers a thought and the desire to create a blog post around the quote.
I highlight what I want to quote, drag and drop it onto the DropPad .. double-click on the DropPad, which opens the Qumana editor.
I add a title, I write some text to flesh out the post. I go back to the quoted page, or surf to another page (leaving the editor open), copy the URL of the links I want to include, go back to Qumana, use the Insert Link function to create the links (it's just pasting the URL into the dialog box).
There' still some back and forth, but it's much easier because the Qumana editor window is open just "over there" on the left.
There's spellchecking, so the final review is much easier (for me).
Tags ? Click on The Insert tags button, type in the Technorati tags you want to include, and click OK. That's it, that's all.
Adding images and video clips is easy .. and will get easier still in the future (it's one of the things we are working on).
If you're a blogger that wants to use advertising on her or his blog, that's easy too .. but just because it's a function available to you in Qumana doesn't mean you HAVE to use that functionality.
I'd never go back to the way I used to compose blog posts ... no way.
The next wave of publishing to the Web continues to grow. The Globe and Mail's feed from AP provides an article outlining the spectacular growth of the video clip publishing web site YouTube.
The report is from an invitation-only Sun Valley conference and points out that YouTube has emerged into the limelight.
There is a big wave of video coming on-line and these [media] guys want to work with us to stay relevant in this changing marketplace," Hurley said during an interview. "This trend in the Internet isn't changing, so we are working with them to find solutions on how they can embrace what we are doing and really leverage that to help their business.
It's another signal about the continuing blurring of the lines between mainstream media and the "new media" environment represented by blogging, podcasting, vlogging, music sharing and so on. For example, one of the key ways YouTube videos get into circulation is by being published to a blog and and distributed throughout link-driven social networks.
That's a key reason why we have made it a breeze to publish YouTube (and Kaneva, etc.) clips to your blogs by copying and pasting the embed code into the blog post. We know some of the blog platforms enable this pretty easily too ... but our next version will make it even easier, through the use of a Publish Multimedia icon and a simple dialog box.
The following excerpt from the article sets out more clearly how big traditional media are looking at these services and the spaces represented by social networks more and more closely. YouTube and CBS ?
Hurley proved he is quickly making powerful new friends Thursday when he hooked up with CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves for a 45-minute sit-down held in a small room outside the closed-door meetings where all the other conference participants had gathered.
During a wide-ranging conversation that could be heard by several reporters working in the room, Moonves seemed to become increasingly intrigued as he learned more about YouTube's rapid evolution.
Moonves marveled when Hurley informed him that YouTube's steadily expanding audience is now watching about 100-million videos per day. He asked how YouTube might be able to direct more traffic to websites owned by CBS. The meeting ended with Moonves concluding that CBS should start posting daily snippets of its programming on YouTube.
If CBS forges a formal agreement with YouTube, it would mark the website's second endorsement from a major television network in less than three weeks. In late June, NBC announced it would share some of its programming on YouTube as well as buy some advertising on the website.
"That was a big, key moment in our history," Hurley said of NBC's stamp of approval.
Now Hurley may face his biggest challenge — proving that YouTube can attract enough advertising to become profitable. The 52-employee company has so far been subsisting on $11.5-million (U.S.) in venture capital.
So, CBS and NBC will be publishing some of its content to YouTube. So can you, of course.
And, using Qumana you can take a clip from YouTube and post it to your blog, add an advertisement (Q-Ads), and publish it. see, that wasn't so hard .. you're a media publisher. Do you think the lines are blurring ?
Adding an advertisement ? Hmm .. we of course let you insert ads into a blog post. I wonder if YouTube is going to be following the same path as Google Video, and creating ways to have advertising work its way into Google video clips ?
I often find myself wondering what will be next .. and then next .. and then next .. in the endless stream of applications that help us manipulate, manage and sometimes mangle the process of writing and publishing to the Web.
At Qumana we have been conscious for a long time that every individual has her or his own working style (have you ever watched over your friend's, or your sister's, or your dad's shoulder whilst they are doing something on the computer, or on the web ? I'll bet you're just like me, and everyone else I have ever seen ... you just instinctively want to reach out ands steer, because they aren't doing it the way you do) ... ;-)
The Web is now a major part of hundreds of millions of peoples' lives. Personal publishing of some form or another, whether it's called blogging or something else, won't be going away any time soon.
On the Web, info flows in to your conscious awareness all the time .. continuously. Whether it's via an RSS aggregator, or through some search activity, or just by browsing and link-hopping. You're always watching, reading .. using your cognitive capabilities and style to *interact* with the flows of information passing in front of your eyes.
Ours (and many other peoples') quest is to design, make and offer applications that give you maximum time for reading and thinking whilst you are at the center of this continuous flow of information. Ideally, we would get most operations - most anything you want to do, other than typing itself - down to one click, but it's not likely that we'll get every operation down to that level of simplicity. But many, if not most will be.
In the blogging / personal; publishing environment, we want to make publishing all sorts of other digital content (think podcasts, self-created mp3's, photo slide shows, video clips) as easy as publishing text, links and images are now. We want to make Qumana, and Qumana integrated with Lektora, formidably simple *information pivots* which will allow you, the personal publisher, read, think, write and express yourself as clearly and elegantly as possible ... whilst still offering you significant flexibility, versatility and power to address the wide range of individual's personal publishing habits.
We want to help you become more effective in the ongoing, never-ending, flow of information. We will welcome any and all feedback that helps make this quest a reality, for you and all your fellow personal publishers.
Let's look at language first. While English might be the de facto language of commerce, and even the Internet, it is becoming less important as the language of the blogosphere. English is steadily declining as the majority language of the blogosphere and Japanese and Chinese are growing quickly. While Sifry admits that many languages, like Korean, might be under represented, it is clear that the nature of the online world is changing. With that change all of us, from software developers to advertisers to ad networks, need to face facts ... we're going to need to support Asian languages better and cater to that huge (and growing) audience.
Now let's look at tagging. Technorati pioneered tagging as a way for people to go beyond gross categories (say blogging or blog editors) to smaller, more granular descriptors (like Qumana). To say that tagging has taken off is like saying Canadians like hockey. The adoption of tagging has been nothing short of stellar. The chart below shows that almost half of all blog posts are tagged and the rate of increase is just growing. Unlike the growth of blogs, the growth of tagging can continue longer because as new bloggers join they have to "catch up" and start tagging. Tagging isn't perfect. Since it is a user-driven system different tags can be used for the same concepts, but the tags are necessarily linked. Take blog editors and offline blog editors. To me both of these tags mean the same thing, and Qumana is one of those tools, but are they linked? If you search for blog editors will you find the same content as offline blog editors? Probably not, unless the post is tagged with both of them.
So this is a clear flaw, but one that those of us who are thinking and writing about tags recognize. I think it's only a matter of time before someone develops a way, probably based on search engine algorithms, to start linking tags together into larger groups ... even across languages.
In addition to the lack of connection among synonymous tags, there is the looming threat of tag-spam. David doesn't think this is going to be a major problem:
Of course, one of the remaining open questions is whether or not that will lead to massive gaming of the system, but current trends seem to present evidence that large-scale gaming is not occurring. In fact, my belief is that because tags are built as hyperlinks inside the document, and thus visible to the reader, that a strong social pressure to use appropriate tags (or at least to not use inappropriate tags) manifests itself, especially with bloggers who want to cultivate influence and readers.
I don't share his opinion that tag-spam will be prevented by a self-policing system, but since it is on Technorati's radar--and many of ours as well--I expect (and hope) that potential solutions can be found before it becomes a problem.
Qumana is, of course, big on tags and tagging. We put one-click, easy tagging into our editor early on (first we believe). We chat with the folks working on tags and tagging whenever we can. Tags, once the connectors are built between synonymous tags, can be used to build larger and larger groups of interest. All fun stuff to come down the road.
Where does this leave us? This is David's summary of his State of the Blogosphere installment:
The blogosphere is multilingual, and deeply international
English, while being the language of the majority of early bloggers, has fallen to less than a third of all blog posts in April 2006.
Japanese and Chinese language blogging has grown significantly.
Chinese language blogging, while continuing to grow on an absolute basis, has begun to decline as an overall percentage of the posts that Technorati tracks over the last 6 months
Japanese, Chinese, English, Spanish, Italian, Russian, French, Portuguese, Dutch, and German are the languages with the greatest number of posts tracked by Technorati.
The Korean language is underrepresented in this analysis
Language breakdown does not necessarily imply a particular country or regional breakdown.
Technorati now tracks more than 100 Million author-created tags and categories on blog posts.
The rel-tag microformat has been adopted by a number of the large tool makers, making it easy for people to tag their posts. About 47% of all blog posts have non-default tags or categories associated with them.
Aaron Brazell, of Technosailor, is the winner of the Qumana Ski or Surf Ultimate Vacation Contest.
The Qumana contest was a simple one - simply write at least 20 posts with Qumana, then blog about your "blogging landscape". Simply, what makes you a more productive blogger?
Choosing a winner for the contest was not an easy task. There were some reallygreatentries. But, in the end, Aaron's came out on top. Thank you to everyone who participated in the contest, and Congratulations to Aaron!
Aaron's qualifying post talked about his journey as a blogger. His start at Ensight, where he really didn't 'get' blogging quite yet, to his start of Technosailor - as something just to pass the time - and its growth as he covered the 2004 U.S. elections. It took a while, but Aaron's journey to blogging was more about finding himself, and his desire to connect, then about any technology or defined aim.
In Aaron's own words:
"You see, blogging is all about relationships. No man is an island."
Aaron's story was a powerful one - both of a journey, and finally of what it takes to support him as a full-fledged blogger.
Aaron is now a vital part of b5media, as a tech guru, writer, and editor for the Sports channel. He's also an active consultant and fledgling author for upcoming book "You Can Blog." Phew, I guess Aaron could really use the vacation!
So, as winner of this contest, what does Aaron get?
We're all about giving bloggers choices here at Qumana, so we have two options: 5 days in Whistler, BC or 7 days in Mazatlan, Mexico. And it's a prize for two, so Aaron gets to bring the guest
So, Aaron, where do you want to go? And don't forget to take some pictures!
Quote removed as per instructions by the legal department of PC Mag. No portion, aside from the title, of the review may be used in any way, even if properly cited under fair use. That's a company that surely understands blogging!
Thanks for the honor of being a part of the list and for such a great review!
And don't forget, the same great Qumana is also for Mac!
Some Qumana 3.0 users have been having problems when posting to Wordpress blogs. After clicking on "Publish Post" a dialog with a message about an XML-RPC error is displayed. The post is published but no categories are set.
We've identified what the problem is and have implemented a fix. We'll be releasing a new version of Qumana 3.0 that will solve this problem soon.
Qumana loves the Mac. And to prove it, this week we launched a private beta release of a new Cross-Platform Qumana to a couple of dozen testers, many of whom are Mac users. In addition, we've built in many new features our customers have been asking for.
You asked us for:
a Mac version
ability to see and edit HTML
local storage for draft posts
properties management
You asked for it. Qumana listened. And responded.
We won't give away all the new features just yet, but we're excited to have a great new product to share with everyone. For a sneak preview, hear what some of our testers have to say:
Andy Boyd - "Easy posting to my WordPress blog... Having a split pane between WYSIWYG and source code is great" (check out the screenshots)
Qumana has built a *new* product. It will look and feel much like our current Qumana, but have improvements in many areas we have collectively identified. Improvements, new features, and new ways to blog easier, faster, and more profitably.
What does cross platform mean? It means that the same Qumana will work on both PC and Mac. Different download files, but the same look, feel and functionality will be built and sustained in one Qumana version.
When does it come out? Well, we're still in a private pre-beta testing stage. Still some bugs to fix and features to add. We have some great people helping us to test out the new version, making sure it's robust and the interface comes out smooth. We won't give you an exact date, but it won't be long now.
Can I help test? Sure, if you want to be a part of this private beta stage, send us an email to info AT qumana DOT com specifying if you are PC or Mac, your blog platforms and some info on why you want to help test Qumana.
Thanks to everyone for all the continued support and feedback. Qumana wouldn't be where it is today without you! And keep your eye on this space. More to come.
Are blog networks the next hot thing? I'm a part of several blog networks/group blogs. It's reminiscent of the 70's "super group" phenomenon. Get a group of super stars together and see what shakes out. For Business Blog Consulting (BBC), it's working out pretty well. I've been on a few that didn't fair so well. You have to have a mix of keeners and those folks who can only post once and a while to make it work.
A group of bloggers including mainstream journalists from outlets such as CNBC, The Nation and The New York Times are banding together to strike a blow at established media and pick up some ad dollars in the process.
Pajamas Media, alluding to the belief that bloggers (pros especially) work in our jammies (I don't BTW ... I have to get dressed like everybody else in the morning). The founders are clearly hoping leverage what I was writing about this weekend for Bloggers for Hire (B4H, which I am a part of with fellow BBC-er Jim Turner) that bloggers can leverage their skills and the ease of publishing to blogs into more exposure, etc. PJ is clearly going for the all-star cast model. What will come out of it? We'll have to see, but I think the trend is a good one. Blog networks will give bloggers more destinations to publish their work and therefore the potential to make more money in the process.
Jeremy Wright told me this during a Skype IM conversation regarding PJ:
"It's always nice to see the big players finally waking up to the power of blog networks. Obviously everyone's keen to see what the incredibly creative people who are involved with PJ Media come up with but, until we see what they actually have up their sleeves it's a little hard to get too nervous.
Even in just the 1 short month b5media has been around, we've already seen 3 networks promise big launches, only to tone back their expectations (one launched with 50 and now only has 35, for example).
We look forward to the competition and new ideas PJ Media will bring. It's always nice to be challenged, after all."
The competition aspect, IMHO can only be good for the Blogosphere and bloggers. Think about it, if you're good (and I certainly don't claim to be), you could entertain offers from several networks and take the best offer. Or you can just publish to them all and reap the benefits, and chronic sleep deprivation.
Where does Qumana fit into all of this? Qumana, we think, is the tool that can help empower bloggers to be able to write for multiple networks. With the multi-blog capabilities you can write post, select another blog, post, and so on. That is exactly what I'm going to do with this post. This post is going to appear on BBC and Qumana. The BBC version will be shorter and point to the post on Qumana. The Qumana post will also have an ad in it, which is the second part of what Qumana adds to this equation, the ability for bloggers to monetize their content easily. Imagine how the networks would operate if each blogger got a portion of the overall site's revenue plus the revenue from an ad placed in their own post. Write a super popular post, reap the rewards.
Not bad, eh? So Qumana loves blogging networks. We'd like to encourage them to contact us to let us help them make their bloggers more productive (and prolific!). Ping me. You know where I am.
Let's look at language first. While English might be the de facto language of commerce, and even the Internet, it is becoming less important as the language of the blogosphere. English is steadily declining as the majority language of the blogosphere and Japanese and Chinese are growing quickly. While Sifry admits that many languages, like Korean, might be under represented, it is clear that the nature of the online world is changing. With that change all of us, from software developers to advertisers to ad networks, need to face facts ... we're going to need to support Asian languages better and cater to that huge (and growing) audience.
Aaron's 
So, as winner of this contest, what does Aaron get? 
Qumana has built a *new* product. It will look and feel much like our current Qumana, but have improvements in many areas we have collectively identified. Improvements, new features, and new ways to blog easier, faster, and more profitably.
