Ants.com Launches Scout, the First Fully Automated Contact Management Service, at DEMO 2001 Conference.

Business/High-Tech Editors

DEMO 2001 -- Booth No. 60

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 12, 2001

Forget That Stack of Business Cards -- Scout Ensures That

Electronic Address Books are Always Up to Date

Santa Barbara-based Ants.com (www.ants.com), developer of technology that builds and automatically maintains a network of contacts, today announced the launch of Scout, the first fully automated contact management service.

Scout is the only permission-based, automated tool that actively manages electronic address books on the PC. Ants.com was invited to launch Scout at DEMO 2001, a prestigious technology conference.

"DEMO 2001 showcases only products that have the potential to change an industry or create a market," said Chris Shipley, executive producer of the DEMO Conferences. "We were impressed with Ants.com's Scout -- both its functionality and its vision -- and believe that such a service could someday replace the need for business cards and help people work together more effectively."

How Scout Works

After downloading and installing Scout, new users are prompted to enter their contact information. Scout then searches their electronic address book for other registered Scout users and automatically updates the information in all parties' address books, using only contacts' email addresses as the unique identifier.

In addition, Scout asks if invitations should be sent to contacts who are not registered users. Invitees are sent an email asking them to join Scout and publish their public business card information. Once registered, their contact information is automatically updated and sent to other Scout users who have them listed as a contact.

After the initial installation and set-up, Scout automatically updates subscribers' address books with new information in real time. Previous information is automatically appended into the notes section, ensuring that users can tell when contact information was last updated.

Scout's unique features include:

-- Auto-fill, auto-update and auto-change of address

-- Users need only a contact's email address to auto-fill address book fields

-- Integrates completely into users' contact management software

-- Does not copy users' address books into its database

-- Lets users keep their address books on their own PCs

-- All updates are made directly within the users' address books

-- there is no Web site to visit or application to learn

-- Users control the information they publish

"Scout will dramatically change the way business professionals keep in contact with one another by ensuring that only the most up-to-date information is available," said Ants.com President and CEO Rick Davis. "We believe that Scout will transform the way businesses approach contact management by freeing them from the time-consuming, repetitive and costly task of manually entering and updating contact information."

Scout provides a much-needed solution, according to recent market data:

-- 54 area codes are anticipated to change this year, affecting

more than 47 million people (Federal Communications

Commission)

-- More than two million commercial/business address changes

every year (United States Postal Service)

-- More than a million new addresses are created annually (United

States Postal Service)

-- 17 percent of the population moves annually (U.S. Census

Bureau)

Product Availability and Pricing

Scout is available immediately and runs on Microsoft Outlook 98 and 2000 on major Windows platforms. For a limited time, Scout is available free of charge for download at www.ants.com/scout. In the future, the software will cost $29.99 to download.

Future versions of Scout, due out soon, will run on most major contact management software applications, including Outlook Express, Lotus Notes, Palm, Act!, Goldmine and earlier versions of Microsoft Outlook. In addition, wireless and Mac versions of Scout are in development.

About DEMO 2001

The annual DEMO conference focuses on emerging technologies and new products, which are hand-selected by executive producers Chris Shipley and Jim Forbes from across the spectrum of the personal technology marketplace. Top executives from leading hardware and software technology companies, venture capitalists, journalists from key industry publications and industry analysts attend the DEMO conference to preview the most promising products and technologies for the coming year. For more information, visit http://www.demo.com.

About Ants.com

The goal of Ants.com is to provide products and services that help people work together. To that end, the company has developed technology that builds and automatically maintains a network of contacts. In 1999, Ants.com launched Farm, a successful online services marketplace with more than 100,000 members worldwide. In late 2000, the company created Scout, a next-generation contact management service. Already, Scout has the potential to "replace a lot of overstuffed Rolodexes," according to PC Magazine.

Ants.com is headquartered in Santa Barbara and is privately held. For more information, call 805/560-3990 or visit the company's Web site at www.ants.com.