Qumana has been selected as one of the select IT companies in British Columbia on Rocket Builders ‘Ready to Rocket - Ones To Watch’ list for 2007

Compiled by the Canadian-based firm Rocket Builders, the ‘2007 Ready to Rocket - Ones To Watch’ named a small select group of  British Columbia technology companies gaining traction within the information technology trends that contribute to faster growth than the IT sector as a whole. These companies represent high-potential growth in revenue and profile and that are beginning to be of real interest to potential partners and venture capitalists. 

“Companies that make our annual ‘Ready to Rocket - Ones To Watch’ list come from a variety of technology businesses and industry sectors across British Columbia, and Rocket Builders has a credible track record of identifying these emerging companies,” says Geoffrey Hansen, managing partner at Rocket Builders.  "Many promising companies are too early in commercialization, too early in first revenues, or in transition to new markets or business models. Based on the potential of their technology alone, we recognize their potential in a "Ones to Watch" list."

About the Ready to Rocket 25 and the Ones To Watch

Each year, based on analysis of trends that will drive growth in the information technology sector, Rocket Builders identifies twenty-five (25) private companies that are best positioned to capitalize on the trends for growth. This selection methodology has been an accurate predictor of growth with "Ready to Rocket" companies exceeding the industry growth rate. Also, many of these companies raise investment capital and each year many of the profiled "Ready to Rocket' companies are acquired. To be eligible for selection to the "Ready to Rocket 25" list, companies must be a nominated Canadian-Controlled Private Corporation, and have a commercialized product on the market that has customers and is generating ongoing revenue.

Additionally, Rocket Builders also identifies early-stage high-potential companies it places on its 'Ones To Watch' list

"Many promising companies are too early in commercialization, too early in first revenues, or in transition to new markets or business models. Based on the potential of their technology alone, we recognize their potential in a "Ones to Watch" list."
Visit: www.readytorocket.com

About Rocket Builders
Rocket Builders is a market strategy and consulting firm focused on helping technology companies to capitalize on market opportunities. Since 2000, we have been engaged in market research, market planning, business development initiatives, strategic selling, and product launches for over 100 organizations. As a service to the local community, each year Rocket Builders shares its insight on market trends to showcase the most promising information technology companies in British Columbia through its “Ready to Rocket” event.
Visit: www.rocketbuilders.com

Tags: Rocket Builders, Ready To Rocket, Ones To Watch

Powered by Qumana

I got a great e-mail this morning from Brian of Pajama Market that Qumana was the Small Business Blog of the Day (for yesterday, but hey).  Brian wrote a nice, solid review of Qumana (thank you very much) and linked to one of my posts about Sifry's State of the Blogosphere.

You know I've never thought of Qumana as a "small business".  Of course we are.  There are only like 11 of us.  One of the cool things about Qumana is that we are a group of hugely talented, and diversely talented, people.  We all have our things to bring to the party (hmm, I think I bring the dessert and probably some after-dinner Scotch) and that makes us a tremendously powerful team.

Want to know another cool thing about Qumana?  We all, for the most part, work from home.  Yep.  Sure we have an office, there was a meeting there yesterday (I connected remotely because I was sick), but we are a team that pretty much goes from coast to coast.

And it works.  Works pretty darn well, I must say.

Tags: Qumana, Pajama Market

One of the great things about working for Qumana is getting to work from home. After the Lycos deal was announced the local paper was interested in talking to be about blogging, the Lycos deal, and most of all how I've been able to do this from the Island. Here is the full-text of the article ... with the picture scanned in :) .

Attack of the Blog: Islander on home page of Internet craze
Salt Spring-based Tris Hussey rides tech-sector success wave

By SEAN MCINTYRE
Driftwood Reporter
When 36-year-old software designer Tris Hussey first encountered the world of blogging back in 2004, he predicted the new medium would mark a sea change rivaled only by Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in the 15th century.

Today he’s turned what started out as a passion for technology and a love of communication into a modern-day tech-sector success story. And he’s done it all from a basement suite on Salt Spring Island’s north end.

“When I first got involved, I thought there was too much information,” he said during a recent interview. “Today, the amount of information out there is explosive.”

For the uninitiated, Hussey added, the sheer volume of data on just about any topic under the sun can trigger information overload. Knowing how and where to draw the line is an integral part of the learning process.

“It’s important to read outside your bubble, but you have to pick and choose who you’re going to read,” he said.

For millions of computer users around the world, the blogging boom is the best thing since, well, real living communities. Not only do blogs provide a space where people with varied interests can meet up, discuss and exchange information with each other, but anybody with access to a computer, an Internet connection and something to say can get involved.

“Blogs give individuals the ability to publish on their own, contribute to other discussions and find a place for their opinion,” Hussey said.

Blogs differ from more traditional home pages in that users can easily upload text, pictures, audio clips and even video to the Internet with only minimal computer knowledge. With help from free blog editing software like Blogger and WordPress, anybody can get in on the game and today’s blogs are published from all corners of the world in virtually every language.

The specific definition of a blog, or web log, is difficult to pin down since the medium is undergoing constant change. Wherever they’re headed, Husssey said, blogs have certainly come a long way from their origins as a collection of personal online diaries kept by small groups of computing enthusiasts.

Among the estimated 75,000 blogs started up on the Internet each day are an eclectic blend of opinions, interests and views on every topic imaginable. From relatively trivial matters such as where and how to drink your coffee, to the recent Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting from the heart of hurricane-battered New Orleans, blogs are here to stay. Even family blogs are popping up frequently as an alternative to the more conventional family album or scrapbook.

Hoping to capitalize on the blogging rush, Hussey, along with a handful of partners across North America, developed Qumana, a piece of software geared to help bloggers blog more efficiently.
Meeting with the company’s other partners via the Internet has not only allowed Qumana assemble a workforce from across North America, but allowed Hussey to work in an ideal environment, his home.

“Working out of my home lets me be flexible and spread things out throughout the day,” he said. “The commute to the office is also a lot shorter when you only have to walk across the room.”
After signing a major partnership last month with Lycos U.S., one of Google’s main rivals, Hussey said Qumana’s next goal rests on helping bloggers make a little money.
The online advertising industry is growing between 20 and 30 per cent a year and connecting bloggers with advertisers is already a lucrative business.

“While the vast majority of bloggers won’t get rich, advertising revenue may help them pay for their Internet connection or feed their latté addiction while doing something they enjoy,” Hussey said.

Tags: Tris Hussey, Gulf Islands Driftwood, Salt Spring Island, telecommuting, Qumana, blogging

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

I don't think I'm looking forward to anything more in the near future than this event.  Why?  Because I'm going home to Boston to speak with amazing folks like Buzz Bruggerman, Robert Scoble, Bill Flitter, David Geller, and Rick Klau about RSS.  Yawn?  Hardly.  RSS might be the stealth technology of the Internet, but it is the most important (IMHO) and almost most crucial we have now.  I'm going to be on a panel about RSS, talking about using RSS for competitive intel (one of my fav subjects), and leading a hands on workshop after the conference proper (PDF version of the agenda I just got in my e-mail).

It's not too late to sign up and come.  Hey and if you're lucky you might even to get to meet my mom (I think my mom is just as cool as Chris').

See you in Beantown!

Powered by Qumana

Next month is NorthernVoice and Qumana is proud to be one of the sponsors of this great conference.

We'll be there at MooseCamp talking about Qumana, Lektora, blogging, and RSS.  Should be a blast.

See you there!

Tags: NorthernVoice

Powered by Qumana

Media Contact
Darren Barefoot
Capulet Communications
Ph: 604 727 5345
darren AT capulet.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Qumana and One By One Media Join Forces in the Growing Blogging Marketplace

VANCOUVER, BC – December 12, 2005 – Today, Qumana Software Inc, makers of the blog publishing tool Qumana and blog advertising network AdGenta, have announced a strategic partnership with One By One Media LLC, a blog consultancy and professional blogging service.  One By One will be Qumana’s partner of choice for blog consulting and professional blogging.  One By One’s Bloggers For Hire program hires writers to blog professionally for a variety of popular and corporate blogs. One By One's clients and professional bloggers will use Qumana's blogging tool and AdGenta advertising network to make blogging and monetizing content easy and painless.

This collaboration doesn’t just benefit Qumana and One By One, it’s for bloggers too.  Gold and silver Olympic medalist Scott Goldblatt is one of many Bloggers For Hire pro-bloggers.  Goldblatt is already using Qumana for his three blogs and has good things to say about it.  "Qumana is a multi-blog blogger's dream. It's easy to setup and easier to use.  At the same time, it gives me all the features I need, from WYSIWYG editor to their ad network.  After using Qumana, I'll never use anything else."

"This partnership makes all kinds of sense," says Jim Turner, Chief Managing Partner at One By One Media.  "We've got the expertise to advise new bloggers and a professional blogging network to supply content and experienced bloggers/writers, and Qumana has the right tool and ad network for our clients.""Often there is a temptation for a company to be all things to all people," says Fred Fabro, CEO of Qumana.  "We're focused on our blogging tool Qumana and on the AdGenta network.  One By One's track record makes it easy for us to point our inquiring clients in their direction.  Their network of professional bloggers also gives us invaluable feedback on our tool and ad network."

About Qumana
Qumana’s mission is to make blogging easier and more profitable for bloggers globally.  Qumana is run by Internet industry veterans, hardcore bloggers, software purists, and world-class designers committed to keeping things simple.www.qumana.com – blog.qumana.com

About One By One Media and Bloggers For Hire
One By One Media is a company that strives to help businesses set up blogs and trains them on blogs as marketing tools and revenue-generators.  Bloggers For Hire, a subsidiary of One By One Media, manages a network of professional bloggers and pairs writers with business blog owners to ensure optimal compatibility.www.onebyonemedia.com

Technorati Tags : Qumana, One+By+One+Media, OBO, Bloggers+For+Hire, B4H, blog+consulting, business+blogging

Bloggers tap $12 billion online advertising market with Qumana’s blog publishing software

NEW YORK, NY – October 27, 2005 – Vancouver-based Qumana Software Inc. launches an innovative upgrade to its program, Qumana, which combines Qumana’s powerful blog publishing tool with a keyword advertising program, today at Oxford & York’s conference, “Media, Communications & Technology - In the Age of the Blogger.” Qumana now gives bloggers direct access to the multi-billion dollar keyword ad revenue market, and a more powerful way to tap it.

“Online advertising grew 26 percent in the first half of this year to reach $5.8 billion, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). By the end of 2008, this market is expected to reach over $20 billion,” said Qumana CEO Fred Fabro. “Pair this with 20 million blogs, and 70 million readers of RSS feeds, and the market becomes attractive,” he added.

“With Qumana, a blogger can choose which keywords best represent the editorial message of the blog post, or the target audience. With one click they can embed an ad from our network that best relates to that content – these ads flow from blog post to RSS to email. With tight relevancy of advertisement to content and audience, and expanded audience, the result is higher click-throughs and happier advertisers,” said Fabro.

“We call this "post-centric" advertising, where ads focus on each blog post content and audience, and we believe this is a major improvement over the machine-based algorithm contextual ad programs that are out there,” said Fabro. “Blogging is about people, not machines, and we think Qumana stays true to this principle,” added Fabro.

Qumana offers a unique, open advertising policy that not only gives a 50/50 split on each ad, but also gives bloggers the freedom to use other advertising programs.

Today’s release adds one-click ad insertion to Qumana’s existing powerful blog publishing tool. Qumana targets experienced bloggers with an easy way to create and publish content to one or more blogs, removing the common restrictions associated with blogging, such as the need to be online, to know HTML, or to be tied to one blog platform or Web browser.

“Qumana is an excellent tool to use if you don't want to monkey around with HTML. It provides a 'drop pad' that lets you drag content and from the web or your email even other text editors and then build your posts. Couldn't get much easier,” says Scott Kingery of Tech.Life.Blogged (http://techlifeblogged.blogspot.com).

For a complete list of Qumana’s features, visit
http://www.qumana.com/overview.htm.

About Qumana
Qumana’s mission is to make blogging easier and more profitable for bloggers globally. Qumana is run by Internet industry veterans, hardcore bloggers, software purists, and world-class designers committed to keeping things simple.

Qumana Software is complemented by Qumana Services, a consulting company specializing in helping companies communicate better using blogs and other social networking tools. Qumana Software is based in Vancouver, BC. For more information visit www.qumana.com.