It's been a while coming and since we're in Boston, Waltham actually, meeting with Lycos Jen and I thought it would be a great time to do a little podcast talking about Lycos-Qumana partnership.

Enjoy!

Walkabout Podcast Apr 25 8.7 megs 13 mins.

Tags: Lycos, Qumana, podcast, walkabout podcast[

We have a winner!

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 really great entries. 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!

Pushing half a million impressions a day (10 million a month) takes its toll on a database.

This weekend we are going to be doing routine optimization and maintenance on the QAds server and database. Intermitently over the weekend the server and ads will be unavailable. We will be timing outages to be during off-peak hours and for as short as possible.

None of your existing data will be lost and reports will be up to date and live Monday.

This, I guess, is just the price of success.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to e-mail support AT qumana DOT com and we will get back to you as soon as we can (between biting the ears off our chocolate bunnies!).

Less than a week after the launch of the Lycos-Qumana partnership, Lycos has completed the upgrade process of their blogging packages so that Tripod and now Angelfire bloggers can use Qumana to post to their blogs.

So, welcome to the fold Angelfire bloggers!  A little bird told me, okay it was Jen, that your blogs have been upgraded to be able to use Qumana.  Like 30 mins ago!

We just had an update meeting on this project and we're all just overwhelmed at the positive response we've received.  We're all enjoying working together and working on getting the two teams together for some fun.  I dunno which is better, whale watching in Victoria or a Red Sox game in Boston.   Hmmm, that's a tough one.

Regardless, I know that Lycos has some really cool stuff up their sleeves to be coming out and of course Qumana does too!

As the saying goes ... watch this space and this one too.

Come on, give Qumana a try.  Hey, it's even free.  Nothing to lose!

Tags: Qumana, Angelfire, Lycos, blogging

Hot on the heels of the announcement of our deal with Lycos, today Blogware/Tucows has announced our distribution agreement with their Blogware resellers.  This agreement allows Blogware resellers to promote Qumana, QReader, and QAds to their customers.

Since several of our blogs (this one, my personal blog, and our Investors blog) run on Blogware we knew that we wanted to build a solid, long-term relationship.  Blogware is one of the leading hosted blogging platforms (one that doesn't get nearly the respect and attention it deserves) and we are excited to be working with Tucows/Blogware and all the Blogware resellers world-wide.

What does this mean for Qumana?  Where are we heading?  It's exciting times for us.  We look forward to introducing more bloggers to Qumana, Qumana Ads and Qumana Reader.  We also hope that these kind of distribution deals will help more people start blogging.  The future?  Clearly we want to keep improving all our products and services.  Everything looked at for places to improve.  Easier, smoother blogging, better RSS reading, better ads for your posts.

I think this is just one of many busy weeks to come.

Tags: Tucows, Blogware, Qumana

Despite some computer company announcing yesterday that another company's OS could run on their machines, the buzz on the Blogosphere has been quite respectable. The BlogPulse search says it all I think. The commentary we're getting is pretty insightful. Sure we've been getting the w00ts! and congrats from friends, but there have been comments like:

In a landscape of hyper-acquisitions and VC bulimia, it's nice to see an old-school-netco-meets-web-2.0 alliance where both companies gain--and so do their end users, especially those million++ Tripod and Angelfire folks who now have easy access to a super-easy blogging platform.-- Jeneane Sessum

Wow, I get a day or two behind, and look what I miss. Lycos - one of the Big Names in Internet - and Qumana - one of the Big Names in blogging - have joined forces to present the Lycos-Qumana Blog Editor, and the Lycos-Qumana RSS reader. Through the Lycos-Qumana alliance, Lycos is also offering easy one-stop blogging through their Tripod service.

Want more hype? Try this one on for size. Wired News (a service of Lycos) bloggers are now posting more efficiently thanks to Lycos-Qumana. -- Frye

Other search firms are moving to explore the expansive web as well. Last month, Lycos announced it was introducing a number of self-publishing and distribution options for content creators. It recently entered the VOIP market with Lycos Phone and today announced the release of a desktop Blog editing tool, Lycos-Qumana. -- SEO Blog

Other mentions: C|Net, Blog Herald, WebProNews, Mark Evans

So, what else do we have up our sleeves? Well that would be telling wouldn't it? Let's just say we're not resting on our laurels and are going to stay as busy as ever.

Tags: Lycos-Qumana, Qumana-Lycos, Qumana, Lycos, Tripod, Angelfire, blogging, Q Ads, QReader

Free Downloadable Application Lets Bloggers Publish Content to Multiple Blogs from Desktop;
Gives Users Control of Ads on Blogs

WALTHAM, Mass., April 5 -- Lycos, Inc. (http://www.lycos.com), a leading media destination for creators and consumers of quality content, today announced a new desktop blog editing tool, powered by Qumana, making blogging easier and more profitable for bloggers everywhere.

With the new Lycos-Qumana Desktop Blog Editor (http://lycos.qumana.com), Lycos enhances the freedom of blogging, allowing users to publish to their Tripod and Angelfire Blogs on Lycos, as well as to other major blogging sites, from the desktop. Additionally, the Lycos-Qumana Desktop Blog Editor works with Qumana's Q Ads, an integrated ad program, allowing bloggers to insert ads into their blogs, while revenue from these ads is shared with the bloggers.

"If you're an active blogger, the Lycos-Qumana Desktop Blog Editor now gives you the ability to post to multiple blogs with just one click, extend your blogs further reaching more people, and make more money from your blog content," said Alfred Tolle, CEO of Lycos, Inc. "With this new offering, Lycos continues to reinforce our strategy by offering content creators the tools needed to better showcase and market their independent content."

Key features of the Lycos-Qumana Desktop Blog Editor include:

• Insert keyword-specific ads in one click and customize ads to your blog

• Edit old posts from any of your blogs

• Offline editing to work at your own pace

• One-click posting to one or more blogs

• Seamless publishing and cross-publishing

• Integration with all major blog platforms

• Easy image uploading

• Spell check and thesaurus

"Qumana is a versatile and powerful personal publishing application that makes creating the content for an online conversation almost as easy as thinking and talking," said Fred Fabro, president of Qumana. "Qumana is being put to use by an increasing number of bloggers around the world, and now this alliance with Lycos puts a free tool in the hands of its millions of Lycos users, helping them blog easily and instantly from their desktop to Tripod and Angelfire platforms."

The new Lycos-Qumana Desktop Blog Editor complements Lycos' award-winning BlogBuilder tool first launched in Feb. 2003. With Lycos BlogBuilder, users can create a blog in minutes, with customizable designs, privacy features, mobile posting and the ability to easily add digital photos, video and sound clips.

About Lycos, Inc.
Lycos, Inc. (http://www.lycos.com) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Daum Communications Corp., a leading Internet portal and e-commerce destination in Korea with a growing presence throughout the Asian markets. Lycos, Inc. creates and operates search, community and technology lifestyle sites including Lycos.com, Hotbot.com, Wired.com, Tripod.com and Angelfire.com. Other Lycos products and sites include Lycos Mail, Lycos Games, Lycos Planet, Lycos Phone and GetRelevant. Lycos was acquired by Korean Daum Communications Corp. in October 2004 and has its U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts. Daum Communications Corp. is traded on the KOSDAQ: 035720, http://www.daum.net.

About Qumana
Qumana Software, Inc. (http://www.qumana.com) is a leading developer of tools and services for bloggers. Qumana's industry recognized tools include: Qumana, a blog editor for online publishing; Q Reader, an RSS Reader; and Q Ads, an advertising network for bloggers integrated into the Qumana tool. Qumana Software develops tools for every blogger: PC & Mac, experienced & novice, and multi-lingual. Qumana Software is headquartered in Vancouver, BC.

Lycos(R) is a registered trademark of Lycos, Inc. All other product or service marks mentioned herein are those of Daum Communications Corp., Lycos, Inc. or their respective owners. All rights reserved.

Contacts:
Kathy O'Reilly
Lycos, Inc.
781.370.3454
Kathy.O'Reilly@lycos-inc.com

Darren Barefoot
Capulet Communications
604.727.5345
darren@capulet.com

Tags: qumana, lycos, lycos-qumana, blogging, web 2.0, deals

Wow, what a month it has been.  Our exciting news (on Lycos and Yahoo) is making its way through the Net as I write this (Thanks Toby, Lorraine, Mark, and Jeremy for early ink).  Before I get into the details and my thoughts, I have some thank yous to say.  First the whole Qumana and Lycos teams.  A project and deal of this scale cannot be pulled off by a single person.  The whole team has worked so, so hard to make this possible (and we even had a Qumana wedding too!) and I thank them so much.  Now, as good as a project might be a web-related project needs, well, servers.  So I'd like to give special thanks to our primary host Pair and our caching provider Akamai.  They have also done extra duty and came through in the clutch when we needed them to make sure the pages got served.

So ... what does this mean for Qumana?  A lot.  This is huge for us.  Lycos is one of those icons of the Internet.  Lots of history, lots going on.  We're excited to be working with them.  In many ways this is an affirmation of Qumana's mission: make blogging easier and better.  Beyond all the hype, beyond all the thoughts of blog bubbles and getting into debates about "what is web 2.0", this sea change we've seen over the last two years is about writing and publishing.  It's about people having their say.  It's about people helping to shape, expand, illustrate, and elaborate on the news of the day.  And now the legions of Tripod and Anglefire, and ... oh did I mention ... Wired bloggers can create, describe, and publish easier today than they could yesterday.

This has been a busy time, but there is no time to rest on our laurels.  Still lots to do.  Still more ways to make things better.  Still more posts to write.  Time to get going on this exciting new phase.

Tags: Qumana, Lycos, Qumana-Lycos, Lycos-Qumana, blogging