Hey, it's take awhile but the program for mesh is finally available! You can check out the mesh blog for all the details. We've got a fantastic group of keynotes, panelists and workshop-pers. It has been amazing - and truly humbling - to see how enthusiastic people have been about participating in mesh. As we have believed from the start (a bar in downtown Toronto), Canada needs something like mesh to happen, and I think we've got a star-studded line-up to make it happen. I'd like to offer a big public "thank you" to Om Malik and Tara Hunt who happily jumped on mesh even before we even had a name or dates nailed down. Their willingness to support "the cause" was inspiring. What more is there to say than "let's mesh".
Before I forget, you can register here.
 

Qumana, one of Canada's few Web 2.0 companies, has signed a major deal to provide Lycos with its desktop blog editing tool - creatively called the "Lycos-Qumana Desktop Blog Editor". Lycos users can use the editor to publish their Tripod and Angelfire blogs as well as other blogging platforms. For Lycos, the deal is a way to quickly expand the functionality of its blog tools in a cost-efficient manner. The company, which launched blogs in 2003, has about 500,000 active bloggers (people who have posted in the past 90 days). Qumana and Lycos will make money through Qumana's AdGenta advertising network, which is re-named Q-Ads. This network lets bloggers place content relevant ads within their posts. Any revenue generated from click-throughs will be split between Qumana (25%), Lycos (25%) and bloggers (50%). Qumana has quietly been expanding the functionality of its blog publisher. For anyone with several blogs, Qumana is an elegant and user-friendly tool. It's free to use so worth downloading.

Is Google Base a Trojan Horse? Sure, it attracted a lot of attention when it was unleashes as being a rival to eBay, Craigslist, etc. But the oh-so-quiet move into real estate may be a huge wake-up call about Google's master plan: by leveraging its search technology, Google can use Google Base as a platform to go after any business it desires - be it real estate, classifieds, travel, automobiles, music, etc. Any supplier who has services and products to sell has two options: they can do it themselves by setting up their own e-commerce site and partnering with other players, and/or they can strike a deal with Google Base. While Larry Page and Sergey Brin do not tip their strategic cards too often, my sense is they've adopted a quasi-stealth approach to Google Base because it could turn the e-commerce business upside down. In other words, Google Base can become anything it wants to be - the biggest challenge may be deciding what areas it wants to focus on. Perhaps Google will let the market decide. By establishing a platform, Google can simply encourage whatever businesses start to gain momentum. Then again, it may not matter to Google as long as Google Base becomes the place to buy and sell products and services. In any event, I think we're seeing the start of something big.
For other perspectives, check out InsideGoogle and Mathew Ingram. Google Base's move into real estate was discovered by Shimon Shandler, whose blog appears to have cracked under the pressure of a citation by Steve Rubel.