New lame Adserving software

Mark Evans has written an article about a new Ad Serving company called AdGenta.

It is supposed to deliver more relevant ads because you upload your blogs posts through a downloadable AdGenta application called Qumana (where do they come up with these names?). You compose the post in Qumana, click on the advertising button and an ad is placed into your article based on the text of your piece.

All sounds fine until you go to download Qumana and you see the Qumana System Requirements:

Operating System: Windows(R) XP, Windows(R) 2000, Windows(R) 98

Hello? Where is the Mac version? And the Linux version?

Then you look at the blog platforms supported:

metaWeblog
Blogger
MoveableType

metaWeblog? Who uses metaWeblog? Where is the WordPress support? What about LiveJournal? TypePad?

Lame.

Guys – if you want to take on the big boys you need to get bloggers on board, – to do that, you need to support the platforms we use.

UPDATED:
Edited to add the Linux versions question – thanks Michele

15 thoughts on “New lame Adserving software”

  1. I may be wrong on this, but I had a niggling feeling that metaWeblog is an API that can be used to talk to many blog types, including WordPress. Again, I may be very wrong!

  2. Hi Tim, thanks for the review. Here is the info from the download page:

    Qumana works with all major blog hosts, including Blogger, TypePad, Moveable Type, Blogware and WordPress.

    The following are the currently implemented APIs. If you would like us to look at another one please click here to send us an email.

    * metaWeblog
    * Blogger
    * MoveableType

    As you can see, we do cover almost every blog platform. To avoid confusion, we let people know which APIs we work with so, if the platform wasn’t on the list, it doesn’t mean we don’t cover it. We usually do!

    The ads generated are based on keywords. You can insert a default ad, as you did, or click a different button to generate and test keywords, change the look, etc. Good customization feature.

    As for Mac & Linux, we are totally with you. They are on the way. Soon. πŸ™‚

    Yep, we’re all bloggers here. Some of us even pro bloggers. So, we hope you test out some other features and please keep that feedback coming! We read it all – that’s how we improve.

    Thanks.

  3. Arieanna,

    thanks for the feedback – a few things:

    1. My name is Tom – not Tim
    2. The text on your download page is still confusing – to me at least. I am being thrown by your use of the expression blog hosts. I’m not sure if you mean hosted blog software like Blogger and WordPress.com or if you mean blog software that you can host like WordPress, Drupal, etc.
    3. I didn’t insert any default ad. I have a Mac so I am precluded from using your software. Consequently, I can’t test your other features nor can I keep the feedback coming.

    You might let me know when the mac version is released – thanks.

    Frank, blogging and blog sort-of listening?

  4. That’s a little bit unfair… I mean I is right next to O so I imagine that’s a typo for a start!

    With regard to the text on the download page, I think it’s very encouraging that the company noticed the feedback and made adjustments on the basis of it. The fact that the text is not yet as clear as you would like is unfortunate, but just means there is still room for improvement.

    And they can’t be blamed if you choose an inferior home computer… heh heh heh… just messing on that one. But at least a mac version is on the way.

    I will probably download and try it out myself when I get back from holidays because I use a lot of Blogger blogs and the blogger interface can be a little cramped when working on a longer post. I don’t care much about the ad side of it, but having a better interface to upload blogs might not be bad at all…

    Must compare it to the Blogger-Word plugin which I have yet to try too…

    Will report back so you know whether to download the mac version when it arrives πŸ™‚

  5. And the comment about my inserting a default ad? And the comment urging me to test out other features, although I am on a Mac?

    I can understand a typo Frank, and even the poor copy on the page (again) but Arieanna obviously replied to my comment without fully reading it or understanding where I was coming from.

  6. um… you did insert a ‘default ad’, using Qumana terminology – you just didn’t do it using their software. She *may* have been pointing out that you can do the same with their software…

    And you don’t mention you use a mac in your post…

    I just think that Qumana are actually behaving in a way you yourself advocate, and not all that many companies do. Smacking down those that are trying isn’t going to be very encouraging to them!

    I’m Tim and so’s my wife!

  7. Why the hell does clicking on the link to the download page actually start the download??
    Mad!!
    What’s the word I’m looking for? Muppetry?

Comments are closed.