Articles - Page 142

Agentic AI for Agencies in 2026

bmckeiver

What in the World Wide Web is Google+ or Google Plus anyway? You’re part of it, aren’t you? The early adopters have their tidy Google circles, a growing membership in others’ circles, and a fuzzy idea of what they're doing. But do they have a clearly defined strategy?More to the point, if we are SEO consultants or professionals, do we know what to tell our clients about Google+? Can we explain the SEO upside to it? Do we really get it?Here’s the question:  Are we winning on Google+?Unless you’re reading this, Matt Cutts or <a target="_blank" href="https://plus.google.com/+BradleyHorowitz/">Bradley Horowitz</a>, I doubt it.If you already know that Google+ is a really big deal, you’re on the right track. This is no mere Facebook competitor — a wannabe that will fizzle out in the fight against the big blue social behemoth. Instead, Google+ is a new way of search, a new form of identity, and a powerful weapon in the SEO arsenal.Basically, Google+ is changing search as we know it, and if you call yourself an SEO expert you need to know how to make hay.<h2>Where We’re Going in this Article</h2>This article is not going to divulge all the deep dark secrets of Google+. Nobody knows all the deep dark secrets. What we do know is simple.Here is the premise:  Google+ is really important for SEO.Because that is true, you must take action. The action steps we outline below will improve your presence and power on Google+. As this happens, your SEO will improve, too. Watch and see.<h3>1. Get on Google+ and fill in all the blanks.</h3>When the world first heard rumblings of Google+, whispers of “Facebook slayer” could be heard. Such prognostications are passé. Horowitz himself <a target="_blank" href="http://allthingsd.com/20110628/google-execs-explain-why-they-launched-google-now-before-its-ready/">stated</a>, “It’s much broader in scope. This is something that will impact Google.” For all its glorious breadth, Google+ is a still a multi-dimensional social platform. Therefore, be present. Just as you curate your LinkedIn resume and post to your Facebook wall, so you must intentionally manage your Google+ profile.Your profile is your SEO. AJ Kohn, a self-described Google+ addict, has bored deep into <a target="_blank" href="http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/google-plus-seo">the search facets and results of Google+</a>. His discoveries reveal this crucial fact:  Everything you put in your profile — where you live, what you do, what you like, what you’re looking for, where you were educated — will register in Google+’s internal search. In other words, your profile is the soil for solid SEO.There’s more to this than internal search, though. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tips-to-use-google-for-seo">SEOMoz heralded Google+</a> as an “SEO juggernaut” that will “dominate search results.” That’s not just journalistic hype. That’s solid information. Do a quick Google search for your name or the name of a colleague. What shows up in the right-hand column of your search results? It’s data culled from Google+.Capitalising on the SEO power of Google+ starts with something as simple as filling in all of your personal information, and optimizing that content to match your goals.<h3>2.  Become a Google verified author.</h3>To improve your visibility in search results, you’ll need to have Google authorship. When you gain Google authorship, your picture will appear in search results next to content that you wrote. Having a photo of your smiling face in search results increases CTR by 484%, according to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.marketingtechblog.com/rel-author-ctr/">Douglass Karr</a> (even if you’re not smiling). What’s more, authorship enhances your reputation and personal branding.Getting verified is simple. Simply make sure your photo is on Google+, include your real name in the article’s byline, and confirm your email address. That’s it. You’re good to go.For a quick overview of how to get verified visit <a target="_blank" href="https://plus.google.com/authorship">https://plus.google.com/authorship</a>.Next, you should manually manage your contributions in your Google+ profile. Look for the “contributor to” section in order to edit the pages and URLs of content you created.Verification is simple, yes, but it does take some time. Going through all your content, adding links, and listing your contributions is tedious. However, what you’re doing is dramatically improving your online presence. When viewed through the lens of ROI, what you have is a no-cost method of improving SEO. To reiterate the point made previously, boosting your Google+ input and authorship will also boost your SEO.<h3>3.  Socialise.</h3>Google+ is intensively social. Therefore, socialise. Getting social is the way to build your platform and to appear more often. The more you appear, the bigger your presence will grow. The more presence you have, the better SEO you have achieved.For most readers, online socialising is not new territory.  We know how to share, like, and comment. Google+ is not much different. It is, however, much bigger in terms of the net effect of your sharing, +1ing, and commenting. That net effect is, of course, a positive impact on search. The following tips provide some easy socialising actions that should become part of your daily routine.<ul><li>Add and use the Google +1 button wherever possible. The more you click +1, the more visibility is gained. In one experiment, a company whose page received more than 70 +1s gained a 20% CTR increase. Not a bad SEO boost for a free little button.</li><li>Include relevant users within your circles. Hopefully, they’ll add you back. Being part of someone’s circle will place you in all kinds of visible situations. Obviously, you cannot force your way into circles. You can, however, generously add others to your own.</li><li>Join communities and start communities. Using Google “communities” provides instant access to groups and even more visibility. If you happen to be one of the 41,302 members in the “Joke of the Day” community, you may appear in someone’s community page. Thankfully, there are communities for nearly every imaginable interest — from Call of Duty fans to Plato’s Republic readers. You can create your own or find a niche community, and massively improve your influence and SEO.</li><li>Share other people’s content. Like any social setting, don’t make the conversation all about you. Twitter users have learned this aspect of online social etiquette. It applies to Google+. Be a sharer.</li></ul>The titanic power of Google+ is still being explored. As Google rolls out algorithmic changes in the coming months, the power of Google+ will become more and more apparent.Most of our activity right now consists of building igloos on the iceberg, with little knowledge of what looms beneath. But at least we’re building something. That “something,” as it turns out, is an SEO game changer. The individuals and organizations that scoffed Google+ as a faux Facebook are now scrambling to catch up.Google+ is incredibly important. You may ignore Google+ at your peril. Or, you may engage and win.

How to Really Win on Google+

daniel-threlfall

Engage, experts in the design and development of web and mobile solutions for enterprises, has partnered with Siteimprove to develop and launch a DNN integration plugin for the Siteimprove Intelligence Platform. Siteimprove is a global software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that empowers website editors to continuously test, fix, and optimize their work through actionable content and analytics insights. The plugin integrates Siteimprove insights into the DNN content management system (CMS), Evoq™ Content, and enables web teams to streamline SEO and accessibility compliance processes.Roger Fuhrman, Executive Vice President of Sales for Siteimprove, stated, “Engage is well known and respected within the DNN community and has in-depth knowledge of DNN and its CMS. So, when we decided to develop a plugin for DNN we knew they would make the perfect partner for this project.”The Siteimprove CMS Plugin brings key features and benefits of the platform directly to the CMS, like:<ul><li>Quality Assurance: notifies users on how they can improve website credibility and dependability by identifying errors, such as misspellings and broken links.</li><li>SEO: identifies suggestions to help increase rankings and organic traffic by making analytics insights an integral part of the content creation and editing process.</li><li>Accessibility: alerts users to compliance issues that violate Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0), allowing them to test new content and identify missing headings, images without alt text, and more.</li></ul>The Siteimprove CMS plugin is now available for download in the DNN Store. It is free of charge for Siteimprove subscribers. For more information visit, <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/siteimprove">http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/siteimprove</a>.About Engage Engage is a digital design, development and strategy agency whose experts create custom, high-quality web and mobile solutions for enterprises. Founded in 1999, Engage has a long history of successful development efforts leveraging content management systems (CMS) and Microsoft .NET. Whether designing a website or mobile application, developing and implementing an automated marketing solution or conducting an analytics audit, Engage positions its clients for success. Headquartered and solely staffed in St. Louis, Missouri, Engage is both a DNN Certified Gold Partner and a Microsoft Certified Silver Partner. To learn more, visit engagesoftware.com.

Engage Partners with Siteimprove to develop DNN CMS Plugin

mike-johnston

Dragonchain Inc. is announcing its partnership with Hurify Digital Markets to revolutionize global, decentralized IoT and blockchain development.Dragonchain will provide Hurify with the flexibility and security necessary to build and sustain its dynamic global ecosystem. Using Dragonchain Smart Contracts, Hurify can provide a secure, blockchain-enabled global community of IoT developers to connect and collaborate on projects.“We're looking forward to working with Hurify on our Dragonchain platform,” said Filip Hantson, Vice President of Business Development at Dragonchain. “Like blockchain, IoT is a young technology that has a massive potential to take the market by storm.”The launch of the Hurify blockchain platform represents a first-of-its-kind IoT services marketplace, built on Dragonchain. The team believes that the Hurify blockchain-enabled platform will disrupt existing service models currently blocking the real scalability of IoT.“Dragonchain will enable Hurify to take advanced, multi-level private and public blockchains to the IoT community,” said Mouli Srini, CEO and President of Hurify Digital Markets. “We now have a versatile solution for a range of IoT operational challenges, such as access control, securing data, and scalability; which Dragonchain overcomes with remarkable ease of use for developers.”About DragonchainDragonchain is a technology leader in the blockchain space with operations in four business segments: enterprise services, entertainment, education, and project incubation/acceleration. A US company, Dragonchain’s goal is to empower businesses with an enterprise-grade blockchain solution. Learn more at www.dragonchain.com.About HurifyThe Hurify Digital Markets IoT project development platform uses smart contracts to support the IoT project development and deployment supply chain. By bringing together into one place access to talent, hardware and services, the platform directly addresses the skill gap and project management challenges that create barriers to IoT project implementations for SMEs. Hurify is a global ecosystem for developer communities, entrepreneurs, and IoT solution vendors with members from across the globe. Learn more at https://hurify.co/.

Dragonchain and Hurify Partner to Accelerate IoT and Blockchain Adoption

There's no doubt that data is gold to every enterprise. But analyzing mountains of it to divine actionable insight is becoming more challenging by the day. This is where innovators like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/amplitude-announces-new-testing-and-analytics-tools-for-making-smarter-product-decisions-at-scale/">Amplitude</a> – a leading digital analytics platform – are proving essential to unlocking data-driven decisions.Now, Amplitude has announced another breakthrough with the launch of Snowflake-native Amplitude, a Snowflake Native App that utilizes Snowpark Container Services – currently available in a private preview. Snowflake-native Amplitude allows joint customers to access self-serve behavioral insights directly within their Snowflake instance.The news was announced at Snowflake Summit 2023, the cloud data warehouse provider's annual user conference. Amplitude is one of a select group of partners developing Snowflake Native Apps that utilize Snowpark Container Services, and the new capability builds upon Amplitude and Snowflake’s partnership and data-sharing integration. This application marks Amplitude’s first warehouse-native offering. Warehouse-native Amplitude will help more organizations uncover the behavioral insights they need to make better product decisions without leaving their data platform of choice.Amplitude also announced several new capabilities, including AI-assisted data governance and automated instrumentation and reporting, to help teams access clearer insights faster. <h2>Unlocking the power of the enterprise data cloud</h2>Based on IDC data, only 32% of the data within an enterprise is being used. Additionally, with the deprecation of third-party cookies, marketers are looking to their data teams to drive more value from their first-party data stored in their data warehouse. Snowflake-native Amplitude unlocks the ROI of data in the data cloud. Joint customers can now mine additional value from their data by empowering their entire organization with access to self-serve insights from Amplitude — all without leaving their Snowflake instance. Snowflake-native Amplitude also simplifies data governance by using existing Snowflake security and access controls and eliminating the need to store or duplicate data in multiple places.“Today, siloed data makes it difficult for teams to get the insights they need to drive their business forward,” said Justin Bauer, Chief Product Officer at Amplitude. “We want to make it easier for teams to seamlessly and securely integrate customer and product insights with their Snowflake data. Now every Snowflake customer can unlock the benefits of self-service analytics to better understand each step in the customer journey so they can drive active user growth, increase retention, and improve monetization.”<h2>New features including AI and partner integrations</h2>Snowflake announced the launch of Snowpark Container Services to expand the scope of Snowpark. This was designed to help organizations run third-party software and full-stack applications – all within their account. By accessing and running commercial software and apps directly in Snowflake, customers can seamlessly enhance the value of their data using cutting-edge tools without moving or compromising security.“We continue to invest in our expansive partner ecosystem, accelerating how users build in the Data Cloud by reimagining what they can run within Snowflake, without tradeoffs,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrischild/">Chris Child</a>, Senior Director of Product Management, Snowflake. “With the launch of Snowpark Container Services, we’re making this a reality. Amplitude’s proven track record of helping teams measure and understand customer behavior to improve customer experiences combined with the ease of use, scalability, and unified governance of the Snowflake Data Cloud will help us deliver more value for our joint customers.”This news comes alongside Amplitude’s announcement of several new capabilities to help technical and non-technical teams gain self-serve access to trusted data and clearer insights. With user experience improvements and automated insights, it’s never been easier to get started with Amplitude. New capabilities and integrations include:<ul><li>Automated instrumentation &amp; reporting: Instantly track user activity and baseline metrics like daily active users, average session length, and geolocation with Amplitude’s enhanced SDK so teams can start reporting on day one.</li><li>Industry-specific reporting templates: Customers can quickly discover product insights tailored to their business with new reporting templates that include industry-specific key metrics.</li><li>AI-assisted data governance: Maintain and continually improve data quality with automation and intelligent suggestions.</li><li>Expanded partner integrations: Quickly and easily send data to other parts of your stack with new and expanded integrations with Braze, Hubspot, Intercom, Marketo, and more.</li></ul>“As the amount of customer data within data platforms continues to grow, self-serve access to insights is a must-have,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmwallace/">David Wallace</a>, research director of customer data and analytics at IDC. “Snowflake-native Amplitude will allow teams to quickly and easily access more of their customer data while maintaining the security and governance benefits within their Snowflake instance.”As previously noted, Snowflake-native Amplitude is available in preview, and users can sign up for an Early Access Program.<h2>Q&amp;A with Justin Bauer</h2>Following the announcement, we had a chance to connect further with Justin Bauer, Chief Product Officer at Amplitude, to ask a few questions about the new service.  <hr />CMS Critic: How big of a deal are the AI capabilities mentioned in the announcement? AI-related features are leading most of the news cycle, and we're curious about how strategic the innovation is, and how it might provide a competitive edge for Amplitude.Justin Bauer: Amplitude has been early to the AI/ML Game. We have one of the most unique and comprehensive datasets on product and customer behavior, which allows us to develop powerful models that will impact how companies develop digital products. We already incorporate a number of ML capabilities to help our customers identify issues early, predict behaviors and personalize campaigns.With new advancements in Generative AI, we're looking to help our customers maintain &amp; improve their data quality more easily, generate analysis faster, and even summarize recommendations from their insights. Our new data governance capabilities are just an early example of that. We are also piloting a new feature in beta that uses conversational AI to dramatically shorten the time it takes for Amplitude users to answer questions. They can simply type “How many active users per day?” or “How many users are new versus returning?” into the analysis search bar and generate suggested analyses that help users analyze, explore, and learn.This is still early days, but we think AI has the potential to accelerate growth in the digital analytics category.<hr />CMS Critic: When will the new service be GA?Justin Bauer: Snowflake-native Amplitude will be GA in Q1 2024, but all of Amplitude's other new features are being rolled out this week. <hr />CMS Critic: Is there a cost advantage or economic optimization that might be a selling point?Justin Bauer: Snowflake-native Amplitude has some big cost benefits for organizations because there’s no need for you to export data to Amplitude or build new data pipelines. We run SQL queries directly on the data in an organization's warehouse and provide insights right from their source of truth. Maintaining and managing all of this data directly in Snowflake drives down costs for our joint customers. This process also eliminates the need to move data between systems, so teams can minimize data drift, which is what we call the divergence of two data sets over time. If data drift isn't prevented, it can create big data quality problems down the line. Another benefit is that we're making it easier for teams to manage data access controls, security, privacy, and governance directly in their warehouse. This means they can lift and shift over to Snowflake more easily, while keeping existing security and privacy controls intact.<hr />CMS Critic: Are the integrations one-click or require additional setup?Justin Bauer: We can't claim one-click, but how about 3-5? We do everything we can to make these integrations easy to get set up. And they're all configuration based, meaning you click instead of code to get them up and running.<hr /><h2>About Amplitude</h2>Amplitude is a leading digital analytics platform that helps companies unlock the power of their products. Almost 2,200 customers, including Atlassian, Jersey Mike’s, NBCUniversal, Shopify, and Under Armour, rely on Amplitude to gain self-service visibility into the entire customer journey. Amplitude guides companies every step of the way as they capture data they can trust, uncover clear insights about customer behavior, and take faster action. When teams understand how people are using their products, they can deliver better product experiences that drive growth. Amplitude is the best-in-class analytics solution for product, data, and marketing teams, ranked #1 in multiple categories in G2’s 2023 Summer Report.

Amplitude Announces Snowflake-native Amplitude App: Q&A with Justin Bauer, Chief Product Officer

cms-critic-staff

News travels fast – and in this case, at MACH speed.
Yesterday, the rapidly-growing MACH Alliance <a href="https://machalliance.org/newsroom/aws-joins-mach-alliance" target="_blank">announced the addition of AWS</a> to its roster of Enabler members, joining <a href="https://www.mongodb.com/" target="_blank">MongoDB</a> and <a href="https://www.netlify.com/" target="_blank">Netlify</a> at an exclusive level of visibility. This is a huge point of validation for the movement as the world's largest Cloud infrastructure provider throws its weight behind the foundational principles of MACH.
As the banner in their press release observes, "Great MACH often runs on AWS," and it certainly seems to be the case for many MACH Alliance members tapping services from the Cloud behemoth.
"Since the launch of AWS in 2006, we have espoused the importance of employing a modern architecture for retailers that facilitates rapid change and innovation," said David Dorf, Global Head of Retail Industry Solutions at AWS. "This includes the use of microservices, APIs, and a built-for-the-cloud design. Having been at the very forefront of this movement, we at AWS are proud to join the MACH Alliance to advocate for MACH as an industry standard to deliver the best digital experiences for makers and users."
In December, the MACH Alliance expanded its charter to include the Enabler membership status: a new class of ecosystem partners that are sometimes used by MACH organizations to deliver a service or technology but are not a direct MACH solution provider. To that end, they are "enabling" MACH through their services, which is a key distinction – but also an evolution of the collaborative's fierce governance around certifying members to their cabal.
"Especially in today's volatile commercial environment, businesses must arm themselves to be agile, resilient, and future-proof," said Sonja Keerl, President at MACH Alliance. "Having a flexible, digital backbone plays a critical role in all of those things, as it helps companies adapt to meet ever-changing consumer demands and deliver superior buying experiences. It's a tremendous win to have AWS on board to help champion the MACH principle and its myriad benefits for businesses of all shapes and sizes."
<h2>The monoliths versus the MACHs</h2>
Forrester's <a href="https://www.forrester.com/blogs/buy-an-integrated-platform-not-a-box-of-rocks/" target="_blank">Joe Cicman</a> fired a shot heard 'round the world when he described the <a href="https://machalliance.org/" target="_blank">MACH Alliance</a> as "the bouncers controlling the velvet rope at the entrance of the Coolest Tech in Town Club."
Sounds like a hip place to be, unless you're caught in a dance-off between the Jets and the Sharks... AKA the monoliths and the MACHs.
While the debate over the MACH Alliance's certification policies continues to be vigorous – particularly from monolithic enterprise players that don't fit their stringent criteria – there's no question that it has captured the market's attention, growing to over 40 members. These companies have all met the agile requirements of the not-for-profit's mantra: Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless (the "MACH" acronym).
According to their website, A MACH architecture gives companies a deeper level of agility so they can deliver new features to customers faster than ever. While this architectural approach started with <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/commercetools-acquires-frontastic-adds-composable-frontend-capabilities-to-headless-commerce/">commercetools</a> and their omnichannel approach to e-Commerce stores, it is now fundamentally changing the way enterprise software is developed and used across virtually every industry – not just commerce.
The "velvet rope" allusion could not be more apropos when describing the certification of MACH Alliance members. According to a <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/why-only-companies-can-be-mach-certified-and-not-products" target="_blank">blog post</a> by Sonja Keerl from last October, one of the rules that helps the Alliance board determine certification is that vendors don't carry and promote legacy products along with their modern API-first and Cloud-native SaaS products. This steadfast rule keeps organizations from "MACH washing" their portfolios to achieve a level of readiness – but does not support their organization's mission or focus on the MACH philosophy.
In the same blog post, Keerl said that the MACH Alliance holds itself accountable for providing clarity to buyers, ending confusion, and guaranteeing the "future-proofness" of tech stacks. It's a bold claim, but a powerful one that seems to be resonating across the software landscape.
<h2>The composable revolution cometh</h2>
While the monolith/MACH dance-off continues, <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/" target="_blank">Elastic Path</a> has responded to the fierce tenants of MACH, suggesting in an opinionated blog post that MACH technologies introduce additional complexity that can be challenging for organizations to manage.
Instead, the company spearheaded its own platform called the <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/composable-commerce" target="_blank">Composable Commerce Movement</a>, an industry-wide initiative comprised of leading digital commerce technology and solution providers including Algolia, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/what-contentfuls-175m-investment-round-means-for-the-future-of-cms/">Contentful</a>, Amplience, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/bloomreach-acquires-exponea-secures-150m-investment-to-power-e-commerce-saas-expansion/">Bloomreach</a>, PayPal, and others – all with the goal of reducing the risk and complexity of using MACH-based technologies to deliver business outcomes for enterprise brands.
In addition to their industry collective, Elastic Path has also created a <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/hub" target="_blank">Composable Commerce Hub</a> – an open exchange of composable commerce solutions. This includes a set of pre-composed solutions for B2B, B2C, and omnichannel commerce experiences. The hub also features accelerators for payment plugins, CMS and PIM integrations, and more.
<h2>What does the addition of AWS mean for the MACH Alliance?</h2>
<a href="https://aws.amazon.com/?nc2=h_lg&amp;aws-products-featured.sort-by=item.additionalFields.featuredRank&amp;aws-products-featured.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-analytics.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-analytics.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-cost-mgmt.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-cost-mgmt.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-compute.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-compute.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-containers.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-containers.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-databases.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-databases.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-fe-mobile.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-fe-mobile.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-iot.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-iot.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-ml.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-ml.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-network.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-network.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-security.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-security.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-storage.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-storage.sort-order=asc" target="_blank">AWS</a> is a goliath. The mere mention of its name brings serious swagger to any brand's position – and this will pay dividends for the MACH Alliance.
While every member in the collective may not be directly tapping AWS services, there are few organizations that aren't leveraging some facet of Amazon's cloud architecture. This underscores the moniker of "enabler" when it comes to their level of commitment. It also drives greater awareness around the role of Cloud-native in the MACH delivery and how AWS supports that vision for vendors and customers.
MACH is serving a critical role in the market, shaping the voice for a free and open future in enterprise technology. Having AWS align with its principles will have a lasting impact on the organization's perception and growth.
The real test ahead: how current members remain true and steadfast to the core requirements – and avoid plunging into a more monolithic posture based on future acquisitions.
<h2>About the MACH Alliance</h2>
The MACH Alliance is a [501(c)(6)] non-profit organization, governed by an independent board and does not endorse specific vendors, members, or otherwise. The Alliance was formed in June 2020 to help enterprise organizations navigate the complex modern technology landscape. It aims to guide and show the business advantage of open tech ecosystems that are Microservices based, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless. All MACH Alliance members meet certification principles that are published on the website.
The MACH Alliance welcomes technology companies and individual industry experts who share the same vision for the future. Learn more at <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3414374-1&amp;h=965007050&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fcts.businesswire.com%2Fct%2FCT%3Fid%3Dsmartlink%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fmachalliance.org%252F%26esheet%3D52478831%26newsitemid%3D20210818005487%26lan%3Den-US%26anchor%3Dmachalliance.org%26index%3D5%26md5%3Ddb9d7bdff8c8646152c1923d3ff4adc2&amp;a=machalliance.org" target="_blank">machalliance.org</a>, read here about <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3414374-1&amp;h=2369115186&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fcts.businesswire.com%2Fct%2FCT%3Fid%3Dsmartlink%26url%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fmachalliance.org%252Fblogdetail%252Fbltfc0a3afbca44303e%26esheet%3D52478831%26newsitemid%3D20210818005487%26lan%3Den-US%26anchor%3DMACH%2Bcertification%26index%3D6%26md5%3Dba1c5d6e1bf42963a3a8bb59771d09da&amp;a=MACH+certification" target="_blank">MACH certification</a>, and follow us on <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3414374-1&amp;h=2025488620&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fcts.businesswire.com%2Fct%2FCT%3Fid%3Dsmartlink%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.twitter.com%252Fmachalliance%26esheet%3D52478831%26newsitemid%3D20210818005487%26lan%3Den-US%26anchor%3DTwitter%26index%3D7%26md5%3Ddfeea3f8422d14d51b860d90329a6837&amp;a=Twitter" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3414374-1&amp;h=1575511374&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fcts.businesswire.com%2Fct%2FCT%3Fid%3Dsmartlink%26url%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.linkedin.com%252Fcompany%252Fmachalliance%26esheet%3D52478831%26newsitemid%3D20210818005487%26lan%3Den-US%26anchor%3DLinkedIn%26index%3D8%26md5%3Da1db2958e174d041221c1705e694b6f0&amp;a=LinkedIn" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>.
<h2>About AWS</h2>
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, offering over 200 fully-featured services from data centers globally. Millions of customers – including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies – are using AWS to lower costs, become more agile, and innovate faster.

AWS Joins MACH Alliance as Enabler Member, Reflects Growth of Cloud-Native Solutions

The Mandalorian might have popularized the creed of "This is the Way."
But in the galaxy of composable commerce, it seems there's a new mantra: "This is the Path."
<a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/" target="_blank">Elastic Path</a>, a leader in the explosive category of composable commerce, recently <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/resources/press-releases/elastic-path-secures-60m-growth-funding" target="_blank">announced</a> a $60 million growth financing round from funds and accounts managed by <a href="https://www.blackrock.com/us/individual" target="_blank">BlackRock.</a> This included participation from existing investors led by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/sageview-capital/" target="_blank">Sageview Capital</a>.
With this new infusion of capital, Elastic Path is poised to expand its empire. With a total raise of over $120 million, the company appears well-funded and well-positioned to continue leading the market away from traditional, monolithic commerce platforms to more composable solutions.
"As digital moves from a channel to the heart of the enterprise, brands demand more: More speed. More control. More flexibility. And our strong growth is clear evidence that we are meeting that demand with a product that enables brands to manage the complexities of their business." said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamusdriscoll/" target="_blank">Jamus Driscoll</a>, CEO at Elastic Path. "I'd like to thank our new and existing investors for their continued belief in our vision of Composable Commerce, and with this capital, we look forward to accelerating market change, one successful customer at a time."
<h2>What is composable commerce?</h2>
<a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/composable-commerce" target="_blank">Composable commerce</a> is a modern approach by which e-Commerce teams are empowered to select and assemble various best-of-breed solutions from across the digital stack and compose them to meet their exact business requirements. Instead of trying to force-fit standard "out-of-the-box" e-Commerce functionality to fit specific needs, composable commerce leverages <a href="https://machalliance.org/" target="_blank">MACH</a> (Microservices, APIs, Cloud-native, Headless) and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/" target="_blank">JAMstack</a> (JavaScript, APIs, &amp; Markup) architectures to adapt to rapidly changing market dynamics  – now and in the future.
The market is rapidly moving to composable-centric solutions. Gartner predicts that by 2023, organizations that embrace composability will <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3986490/composable-commerce-must-be-adopted-for-the-future-of-ap" target="_blank">outpace the competition by 80%</a> in implementing new product features. And according to the <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/resources/ebooks-white-papers/state-composable-commerce-2021" target="_blank">2021 State of Composable Commerce Report</a>, 95% of e-Commerce practitioners believe composable commerce is the approach businesses should take. 
Elastic Path spearheaded its "Composable Commerce Movement" to make it simpler and faster for brands with complex requirements to deliver unique digital commerce experiences. The company makes this possible by providing a <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/elastic-path-commerce-cloud" target="_blank">MACH-based commerce platform</a> and what they refer to as "Pre-Composed Solutions" that make it fast and easy to migrate. It also offers <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/products/composable-commerce-xa" target="_blank">Composable Commerce XA</a>, which provides complete experience assurance for multi-vendor commerce solutions.
Elastic Path has built a clear reputation as a leader in headless e-Commerce. Its composable, API-first commerce platform is specifically targeted towards enterprise-level organizations, but the growth of the pre-composed elements may broaden its target audiences. For all these reasons (and more), Elastic Path was featured on our <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-headless-commerce-platforms/" target="_blank">Top 10 Headless Commerce Platforms</a> list. 
<h2>Banking on future growth</h2>
According to the company, the new investment will enable Elastic Path to build on strong performance in 2021 as the market accelerates its shift to composable commerce. 
Highlights from the past year include:
<ul>
<li>400+% year over year growth</li>
<li>140+ new product releases, including <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/products/catalog-composer" target="_blank">Catalog Composer™</a>, a groundbreaking advancement for brands with complex catalog and channel requirements</li>
<li>25+ new <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/blog/what-pre-composed-solution-how-does-it-accelerate-time-market" target="_blank">Pre-Composed Solutions™</a> and Accelerators added to the Composable Commerce Hub™</li>
<li>Introduced <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/products/composable-commerce-xa" target="_blank">Composable Commerce XA™</a>, the only production-support offering spanning multi-vendor Composable Commerce solutions</li>
<li>Became the first and only <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/technologies/mach-architecture" target="_blank">MACH-based</a> commerce vendor to achieve <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/resources/press-releases/elastic-path-commerce-cloud-first-and-only-composable-api-first-headless" target="_blank">SOC 2 for security</a></li>
<li>40+ new partners onboarded</li>
<li>Added new marquee enterprise customers, including Konica Minolta, HarperCollins, Orgill, and DMSI</li>
</ul>
Elastic Path also <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/elastic-path-acquires-moltin/" target="_blank">acquired Moltin</a> in early 2020, a fellow API-first commerce technology platform, helping to solidify its position in the headless commerce market and deploy commerce experiences faster, easier, and at a greater scale.
"We were extremely impressed with Elastic Path's team, the strength of its product offerings, and its impressive growth over the past 12 months," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnkerwindoyle/" target="_blank">John Doyle,</a> Director at BlackRock. "We are pleased to partner with Elastic Path to support its continued growth into the future."
<h2>MACH... but no MACH Alliance?</h2>
With the growing awareness and interest in MACH technologies, it's impossible to ignore the efforts of the <a href="https://machalliance.org/members" target="_blank">MACH Alliance</a> and its mission to "future-proof" enterprise technology for the future of digital experiences. Started by <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/commercetools-acquires-frontastic-adds-composable-frontend-capabilities-to-headless-commerce/">commercetools</a>, the fledgling organization has already amassed over 40 members in its cabal, all platforms that feature a singular, pure-play focus on the MACH attributes. The MACH Alliance recently expanded its charter to include a class of Enabler members that provide the platforms and technologies that other members utilize. This includes netlify, MongoDB, and most recently <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/aws-joins-mach-alliance-as-enabler-member-reflects-growth-of-cloud-native-solutions/">AWS</a>.
While it offers a fully MACH-enabled solution, Elastic Path has been vocal about its lack of presence in the MACH Alliance. In a blog post, the company revealed why it has chosen not to participate in the highly-visible organization, particularly the MACH Alliance has grown its influence over the last few months. The key reason: Elastic Path's strategy to expand its breadth of offerings and include multiple products such as <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/commerce" target="_blank">Elastic Path Commerce</a> – which is not microservices-based.
This along is a key blocker for joining the MACH Alliance, but Elastic Path has instead forged its own "path" with the Composable Commerce Movement, adding its <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/hub" target="_blank">Composable Commerce Hub</a> – a library of partner resources designed to help brands reduce the risk and complexity of using MACH-based technologies and empower them to rapidly deliver business outcomes. To date, its Hub contains composable solutions from vendors such as <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-upgrades-open-dxp-capabilities-to-expand-composable-enterprise-features/">Acquia</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/andy-jassy-amazons-new-ceo-signals-bold-future-for-loud-and-digital-experiences/">Amazon</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/what-contentfuls-175m-investment-round-means-for-the-future-of-cms/">Contentful</a>, and more.
<div>
<h2>About Elastic Path</h2>
</div>
<div>Elastic Path is the company powering mission-critical digital commerce for the <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/case-studies" target="_blank">world's leading brands</a>, such as Intuit, Pella, Deckers Brands, T-Mobile, and over 250 other leading brands. As relentless innovators, Elastic Path pioneered the <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/headless-commerce" target="_blank">Headless Commerce</a> space in 2011 and spearheaded Composable Commerce in 2020. Elastic Path provides industry-leading headless commerce solutions for digitally-driven brands to rapidly build, deploy, and continuously optimize highly differentiated commerce experiences. Elastic Path is a global company with offices in Boston, Newcastle, Reading, Toronto, and Vancouver.</div>

Elastic Path Secures $60M in Funding for Composable Commerce Growth

paris-tuzun

Elastic Path logo against a dark blue background

<div>
Wix just unveiled Artificial Design Intelligence – and it looks pretty darn impressive.
Wix ADI is specifically designed to eliminate the most significant challenges of building websites – time, design and content creation. It's the first-ever Artificially Intelligent web design solution for website builders. 
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YrERmaDZNl0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Wix Artificial Design Intelligence instantly designs tailored websites by learning about the user through a few simple questions and curating content to create a unique design. From billions of high-quality combinations and possibilities, Wix ADI selects the perfect combination for each users’ need.
</div>
<div>
Wix's Co-Founder and CEO Avishai Abrahami gives us some insight:
<blockquote>
“Wix ADI is the world’s first technology platform that combines website design and content creation with artificial intelligence to enable complete websites to be created in a matter of minutes.
Building a professional and complete website is the first step in getting online, and while Wix today makes it easy, challenges still exist.
With Wix ADI, we solve these challenges, getting businesses online with a fully functioning, stunning looking website easier and faster than ever. Technology innovation is Wix’s core competency, and for nearly a decade, small businesses have relied on Wix not only to build websites but also to manage and grow their businesses online.”
</blockquote>
After the automatically generated website is completed, users have the option of easily customizing themes, editing text, or adding beautiful images, sections and pages.
</div>
<h2>Wix ADI Features:</h2>
Here's a breakdown of the features that Wix Artificial Design Intelligence brings:
•    No two websites are designed the same. Every website is unique and has multiple sections, pages, layouts, themes, color sets, fonts and copy variations. Wix ADI delivers billions of unique combinations in thousands of business categories.
•    Each website is tailored to the business’ category. Wix ADI matches images, text and layout by learning and building based on its knowledge of the users’ business and location. From personal trainers and photographers, to chefs and lawyers, Wix ADI brings custom insight and content to a business’ online presence.
•    Gathers content from across the web. Wix ADI locates relevant content from around the web and social media channels that users can choose to add to their custom design.
•    Users can customize their completed websites. Users can easily customize themes, change layouts and add beautiful images, sections and pages.
•    Stunning results for every website. Wix ADI maximizes aesthetics as it understands context and changes design according to the users’ needs.
•    AI that grows with the user. Wix ADI will create the website for the user or show them how to create optimal designs every step of the way.
<h2>Years of Development</h2>
Nitzan Achsaf, Wix's Head of Wix ADI, also chimed in:
<blockquote>
“Wix ADI is an advancement that has been under development for years, and we know from our deep experience and extensive research that there is considerable demand from individuals, designers and businesses all over the world for exactly this type of solution.
Wix ADI isn't just a new website builder – it sets a new market standard for web design. We have been at the forefront of this market for nearly a decade, and now as one of the leading AI technology providers, we will make website creation accessible and easy for everyone.”
</blockquote>
<h2>The Proof Will Be In the Pudding</h2>
Although Wix has announced ADI, it's going to be gradually rolled out in the coming months. And in my opinion, it' then that we'll see just how useful Wix ADI is.
It the concept amazing? You bet. But my reservation is this:
How well will Wix ADI perform after its first million uses? Will it still be able to churn out unique websites? After all, Wix has over 80 million users, so I'm just hoping that Wix ADI is intelligent enough to create truly unique websites on such a massive scale.
So to conclude, it's too early to come up with a verdict on Wix ADI – but it's not too early to be excited.
To learn more about Wix ADI, check out the Wix press release, or visit the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/go/wix">Wix website</a>.
And as per usual, you can explore more through the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wix/">Wix hub on our website builder directory</a>.

Wix Launches Wix ADI - Artificial Design Intelligence

Standing in the way of fresh digital products and speed to market are outdated workflow and business processes bound by legacy technology and siloed content.
Companies need to move beyond traditional waterfall models of product development, where each team waits in line to contribute their part. The modern model is agile, as people work in parallel on a cross-functional team that includes anyone who plays a part in the customer lifecycle—each doing his or her part in what can be likened to a “digital factory.”
Customers are now accustomed to a continuous stream of innovative digital products that are tailored for their individual needs. Companies that can meet these expectations are repaid with a highly engaged customer base whose interactions with the aforementioned digital products feed the targeted development of new digital products—not to mention the bottom line.
It’s the best kind of virtuous cycle, but it doesn’t come easily. In fact, for some companies it doesn’t come at all.
The demand chain and digital factories
Digital products — ranging from apps and services to websites, digital signage and customer touchpoints that haven’t even been invented yet — are now core components of businesses, brands, markets and customer value.
Organizations are spinning up new digital products on a continuous basis in response to market demand. Some of these products may be a way to build loyalty with a customer base, expand current market share, take risks and enter new markets or product lines. And it’s not just startups causing this disruption,, incumbents are striking back by building these digital factories as well. Companies that fail to do so risk losing time, money, market share, customers and even staff as talented existing and future employees look for dynamic (and profitable) workplaces using the most current technology.
The digital factory approach enables the kind of agility and flexibility this dynamic model requires. However, for many companies this means a complete re-evaluation of how teams, processes and technologies interact.
Why? For one thing, it’s likely that existing monolithic systems and architectures run counter to the digital factory concept. The goal of digital factories is to unleash teams to spin out digital products quickly. Creating a viable product with plenty of features requires not only a transformation in processes and culture, but supporting technology that compliments developer workflows, speed and agility.
Most monoliths either address a fraction of customer needs by supplying millions of unused and cumbersome features that do not necessarily reflect the goal of organizational agility and velocity, or the monolithic solutions require significant modification and customization. Worse yet, monolithic systems being operated today within the enterprise may not be able to handle the needs of customers even a year down the line – even with massive customization efforts. Right when a customer has completed one endeavour for a particular touchpoint or audience, the next touchpoint or audience is already interacting with their competitor that is already in that next space.
Spinning up a new product or service could take weeks or even months in this model. If something isn’t quite right with the product and it has to be tweaked, the entire cycle begins again, leading to huge deficits in time and expenditure for the company.
Building the digital factory
The cloud brings companies a big step closer to a working digital factory because it enables them to decouple services and continuously deploy software using a stack of primitives. Organizations can pick and choose solutions based on how well they accomplish a specific task, rather than playing catch-up with technology and trying to add feature upon feature to an already bloated offering.
Companies can make the final leap to a larger digital transformation with a digital factory that breaks down silos and connects developers, designers, content creators and other strategic digital contributors.
Some of the major benefits include:
<ul>
<li>A digital factory’s modular, services-oriented architecture enables continuous deployment — not to mention speed and resiliency — by breaking everything into small pieces.</li>
<li>Teams are encouraged to experiment — the digital factory model enables teams to fail fast and inexpensively.</li>
<li>Digital factories mitigate the risk that comes with vendor lock-in and the need for significant customizations, putting companies in a position to change direction quickly and lead emerging markets and channels.</li>
<li>Digital factories increase internal morale, innovation, and the quality and quantity of talent coming inbound to help these organizations in this new world.</li>
</ul>

Why your organization’s ability to compete depends on its ability to reinvent itself as a digital factory

Power your CMS on AWS

Manage your websites & apps in the most trusted cloud.

#ffffff

Most managers understand that communicating regularly with team members is important. However, with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/us/remote-workers-work-from-home.html">more and more people working remotely</a>, it can become easy to neglect employees who aren’t in the office every day.
You need to guard against this. Communicating with your workers on an everyday basis is still essential, even if you’re not in the same physical space. Implement the right tools, like a <a href="https://www.15five.com/continuous-performance-management/">continuous performance management system</a>. Doing so will allow you to remain in contact with every member of your team every day, no matter where they work. The following are key reasons you should make daily communication a priority:
Higher Engagement
Engaged employees care about performing at the highest level possible. They believe in the company’s values and want to help the organization as a whole achieve its goals.
Unfortunately, Gallup has found that most of today’s workforce is not actively engaged. However, Gallup surveys also indicate that regular communication between workers and managers boosts engagement levels. Simply providing feedback, direction, and recognition on a daily basis is an easy, but effective, way to keep your team motivated.
Lower Turnover
Losing an employee is extremely costly for a business. Luckily, <a href="https://www.adp.com/boost/articles/2017/07/manager-relationships-with-employees-can-boost-retention.aspx">surveys show</a> that retention rates increase when employees feel they have relationships with their managers. When provided with regular direction and feedback, as well as signs of personal empathy, they’re more likely to stay at a company.
Better Insights
Even though you’re a manager, odds are good there is still room for improvement within your own position. Odds are also good your employees are the ones best equipped to identify where you can make improvements.
Of course, if you don’t have a relationship that involves communication, they’re not likely to offer their own insights without prompting. On the other hand, if you stay in touch on a daily basis, team members will be more comfortable offering suggestions.
Problem Solving
Some team members are reluctant to ask questions or request extra help with a task because they don’t want to appear incompetent. However, if you communicate with them on a daily basis and give them opportunities to ask for support, they’ll be more inclined to take you up on those offers. This makes it easier to identify and solve problems early on, before they have a major impact on a project.
Efficiency
Managers and employees who share an office and work together directly on a daily basis often develop similar mindsets that make it easier to work efficiently.
Teams begin to develop a shared language for discussing tasks, and they learn to anticipate when a manager or other team member will need assistance with a task. This eventually shapes an efficient team that knows how to get tasks done and move to the next step without waiting for immediate instruction.
That’s the kind of team you want. Luckily, you don’t need to sacrifice it simply because your employees don’t work in the same physical office. With the right tools, you can enjoy all the rewards that come from keeping in touch with your workers on a daily basis.

Why Maintaining Daily Contact with Employees Is Essential

User experience is one of the most important parts of website development processes. Website owners should place a particular emphasis on the perfect user experience because today it is a huge trend.
According to <a href="https://experiencematters.blog/2014/01/31/data-snapshot-cx-expectations-and-plans-for-2014/">statistics</a>, 84% of companies expect to increase their focus on customer experience measurement and metrics.
A great user experience is what draws your visitors in and compels them to stay on your website longer. However, if a website is difficult to use and people can’t find any information, they will leave.
61% of users <a href="http://googlemobileads.blogspot.com.by/2012/09/mobile-friendly-sites-turn-visitors.html">say</a> that if they didn’t find what they were looking for right away on a mobile site, they’d quickly move on to another one.
If you want to create a website with the perfect interactive elements to provide a great user experience on Drupal, but you feel that the platform itself doesn’t give you enough space for creativity, integrate it with Angular.
Let’s find out why these frameworks are a good option.
<h2>What is Drupal 8 and What are Its Benefits?</h2>
Drupal is a <a href="https://www.drupal.org/project/usage/drupal">popular</a> open-source website development platform which simplifies the online management of content and users. It's used to make many of the websites and applications we use every day. It has great standard features, like easy content authoring, reliable performance, and excellent security.
Due to its powerful functionality, Drupal provides excellent opportunities for the development of complex websites.

Within 90 days of the <a href="http://buytaert.net/drupal-8-0-0-released">release of Drupal 8.0.0</a>, the new version outpaced Drupal 7 by more than 200%.
Drupal was released under the GNU General Public License, which <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License">guarantees</a> end users the freedom to run, study, share and modify the software.
Thus, Drupal is free to download from Drupal.org. Anyone can modify and extend the platform by adding various extensions, plugins and integrating frameworks, for example, Angular.
Drupal has more than 2,000 free design templates and more than 34,000 free plugins.
Drupal has the following benefits:
<ul>
<li></li>
<li></li>
<li></li>
<li></li>
<li></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
1. Technically Advanced. Drupal is one the most technically advanced content management systems. Being one of the most powerful tools, it requires some expertise and experience to operate.
</li>
<li>
2. High Performance. Drupal pages load quickly and have fast response time. It is less resource-intensive and requires a less expensive server or hosting setup.
</li>
<li>
3. Customizable. Drupal is highly customizable. The platform may be integrated with many widely available plug-ins, themes and other configurable options to choose from. You can also edit the root files and code directly. Drupal is perfect for those developers who want to make more significant changes and customize the platform the way they want.
</li>
<li>
4. Free of charge. Anyone can download the Drupal software for free on Drupal.org, and install it on a hosting server.
</li>
<li>
5. Flexible Сontent Delivery. Drupal is known for its ability to tag, categorize, and organize complex content.
</li>
</ul>
Drupal is best for complex, advanced, and flexible websites that require complex data organization in addition to online stores for community platform websites with multiple users and. All of these benefits sustain Drupal and help the platform remain highly competitive.
<h2>Which Sites Can be Created on Drupal?</h2>
Drupal.org <a href="https://www.drupal.org/about">writes</a> that Drupal platform is suitable for any type of website creation.
It is ideal for community web portals, personal websites or blogs, E-commerce applications, social networking websites, games and entertainment websites and many more.
Awwwards <a href="https://www.awwwards.com/websites/drupal/">gathered</a> the best websites examples of Drupal designs.

An Italian restaurant website which is designed in a scrolling manner.
www.ristorantesangenesio.com

A website of a Swiss watch company with background videos
www.girard-perregaux.com
<h2>What is Angular 2 and What are Its Benefits?</h2>
Angular is a JavaScript framework that helps developers build applications. AngularJS was developed to make applications more interactive for the end user.
It was designed to overcome the limitations of HTML. Its library provides a number of features that make it trivial to implement the complex requirements of modern applications, such as data binding, routing, and animations.
Angular 2 is not an upgrade version of Angular 1, it is a complete rewrite of AngularJS.
Wikipedia <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_(application_platform)">says</a>:
“Angular (commonly referred to as “Angular 2+” or “Angular 2″) is a TypeScript-based open-source front-end web application platform led by the Angular Team at Google and by a community of individuals and corporations to address all of the parts of the developer's workflow while building complex web applications. Angular is a complete rewrite from the same team that built AngularJS.”
With the help of Angular 2, you may design applications that present data and manipulate it and make lists of names and data.
Angular 2 also gives you a possibility to store products and design dynamic widgets, control smart forms and create miscellaneous interactive elements.
<h2>Angular 2 has the following benefits:</h2>
<ul>
<li>
Simplicity. Angular 2 framework is considered to be simpler than Angular 1 as it has fewer concepts, making it easier to understand.
The developers who designed Angular 2 took all of the feedback regarding Angular JS and applied it allowing them to produce a development product that was simpler to understand.
Angular 2 is a more streamlined framework. It allows developers to focus on building JavaScript classes.
It also provides a much richer development ecosystem. There you can also notice a sophisticated improvements with text editors or IDE’s auto-completion. With Angular 2 it is easier for developers to write more generic JavaScript, and plug it into Angular.
</li>
<li>
Mobile Orientation and Performance. Mobile optimization trends allowed developers to create a ground-up redesign of Angular and make the framework more suitable for mobile optimized websites and applications development.

smartinsights.com
Angular 2 is designed for development of mobile applications. It is optimized for memory efficiency. It has first-class support for touch events and gestures that work across all devices.
The goal of this framework is to consolidate development. It allows developers to take one framework and use it for the development of various applications.This makes development with NativeScript, for example, easier. As you can use the same framework to build native applications.
All the benchmarks that the Angular team is exercising are public and part of the <a href="https://github.com/angular/angular/tree/master/modules/benchmarks">GitHub repo</a>, so anyone can look at them and even run them locally.
</li>
<li>
Project Architecture and Maintenance. A GitHub contributor writes that the removal of minification workarounds and rigid prescriptions make maintaining existing applications at Angular 2 simpler.
The new module system also makes it easier to develop effective tooling that can better reason on larger projects.
</li>
</ul>
<h2>Examples of Angular 2 Applications</h2>
You can see some examples of using Angular 2 on <a href="http://angularexpo.com">angularexpo.com</a>.

lbd-pro-angular2.creative-tim.com

A Rhythm Sequencer Made with Angular 2 and TypeScript.
http://www.joeyfarina.com
<h2>Where Can Angular 2 be Used with Drupal?</h2>
In different types of live weather widgets, live update widgets, and various real-time tracking systems.
For example, <a href="https://www.wunderground.com/">wunderground.com</a> has such a weather widget:

In web shops and web carts, where you can get the price in real-time after setting product parameters and automatic calculations.
In various types of listings, e.g. news listings, person databases, and ticket systems.
Within smart forms that calculate some values and update in real-time without having to reload the page.
<h2>Wrapping Up</h2>
Angular is a JavaScript framework that helps developers build applications. Angular 2 is a complete rewrite of Angular. It is a new progressive framework which gives many opportunities to create a miscellaneous applications on a Drupal platform.
With Angular 2 you may create smart forms, different types of listings, online updating widgets and many other things.
The major benefits of Angular are its simplicity, mobile orientation, performance, and its architecture and maintenance.
Angular 2 can be easily integrated into your Drupal platform. This integration will provide you with the high speed of websites operation and the perfect user experience.

When Angular 2 Meets Drupal: Building Web Applications with Progressive Frameworks

As I'm sure you already know, given the amount of coverage in the media about this story, Yahoo has purchased the extremely popular microblogging platform, Tumblr for $1.1 Billion dollars.
Given Yahoo's rather checkered past, what do you make of this purchase? How do you think it's going to affect Tumblr as a platform? What do you think it will do to Tumblr's “cool factor”?
Yahoo hasn't had the best luck with acquisitions. It picked up Delicious and basically destroyed the popular bookmarking platform. Sure, it still exists and is used but it's a shell of its former self. The same applies to the former web darling, Flickr.
Adding fuel to the fire, WordPress founder, Matt Mullenweg has <a href="http://ma.tt/2013/05/yahooblr/" target="_blank">pointed out</a> on his personal blog that they've seen a huge number of people jumping ship from Tumblr to WordPress.com
<blockquote>
Imports have actually spiked on the rumors even though it’s Sunday: normally we import 400-600 posts an hour from Tumblr, last hour it was over 72,000
</blockquote>
Now, having said that, this is really a drop in the bucket to Tumblr who boasts a huge 109.5 million blogs on the platform but if the migration keeps up (and I'm sure we'll find out soon enough if it does) then this could be a sign of bad things coming.
Personally, I'd like to see Yahoo! pull this one off correctly. As long as they keep their horrible Yahoo! sign in away from Tumblr and don't try messing with the serving of ads on the platform, Tumblr could very well benefit from this arrangement.
I think, however, that the reason people are jumping ship is because normally when acquisitions like this occur, it's only a matter of time before the services fades away (take Posterous for example)
That's my opinion on the matter. What's yours?

What do you make of Yahoo's purchase of Tumblr?

<a href="https://umbraco.com/">Umbraco</a> today launched Umbraco 8,  the most advanced and easiest to use version of the flexible and full-featured open-source content management system (CMS) running more than 500,000 live websites. Building on its reputation as the “friendly CMS,”  Umbraco 8 makes it even easier for companies of any size to create and deliver relevant, compelling and personalized content—in any language—to engage and convert customers across websites, mobile apps, and other digital initiatives.
Umbraco 8, built on the Microsoft .Net platform, now includes several industry-first features and functionalities focused on simplicity, stability, and usability:
<ul>
<li>Language Variants—allows variants of the same content in one project, greatly reducing the complexity of managing multilingual content, without needing development to get similar capabilities.</li>
<li>Infinite Editing—enables editors to seamlessly move back and forth between different parts of the website, supporting modern content creation without compromising workflow</li>
<li>Content Apps—offers easy access to “best of breed” third-party applications for additional functionality as well as new content-aware features that gives end-users an entirely new way to extend, learn, evaluate, and as a result, improve their content.</li>
</ul>
“Content is still king, and these new features in Umbraco 8 help support the creation of compelling and highly effective content that will reach all key audiences without the technology getting in the way,”
said Niels Hartvig, Umbraco’s founder and chief unicorn. “With Umbraco 8, creating multilingual sites is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons. Editors can seamlessly move through a jungle of content. And content creators can get valuable insights into which content is having the most impact, and why, so they can produce what will more effectively generate what we all want from a website—more sales.”
The “Next Level” of Umbraco Arrives
According to Scandia CEO and founder Nik Wahlberg, a long-time gold partner and Umbraco user, “Umbraco has always been more than just a CMS, but this release takes the powerful application development platform to the next level entirely.”
“With Umbraco 8, our clients now gain a slew of modern and much-anticipated features, from content variations for multilingualization and personalization to best of breed apps and a streamlined user experience,” Wahlberg added. “With Umbraco Headless following shortly to serve both our Web and mobile initiatives, both Umbraco and our clients in financial services and identity protection look forward to Umbraco's steady growth.”
<a href="https://www.marceldigital.com/">Marcel Digital</a>, a Chicago-based digital agency and Umbraco gold partner, expects Umbraco 8 to give his clients, and the visitors to their websites, an even greater overall experience. “With Umbraco 8, site owners can give their website visitors a more relevant and personalized browsing experience that generates more website engagement, along with increased sales,” said Patrick Delehanty, marketing manager, Marcel Digital. “In addition, with Infinite Editing, our clients can now edit a page of their website by simply clicking on the content or media and making the changes right there in the window, with the changes immediately effective. It’s a huge time saver.”
Umbraco Awards Nominations Due by March 22
Nominations are open for the 2019 Umbraco Awards, an annual program honoring the best Umbraco projects in 10 categories, including Best Cloud Solution, Best Custom Solution, Best Editing Experience, Best Gold Partner Solution, Best Certified Partner Solution, Best Designed Site, Best New Tech, Package Award, Best Content app (Umbraco 8) and the Jury’s Choice Award. Nominate at<a href="https://codegarden19.com/umbraco-awards-2019/">https://codegarden19.com/umbraco-awards-2019/</a>
Winners will be announced at <a href="https://codegarden19.com/">Codegarden 2019</a> on May 22-24 in Odense, Denmark.
About <a href="http://www.mobile-industrial-robots.com/">Umbraco</a>
Umbraco is an open source CMS built on the Microsoft .NET platform. Often referred to as the “Friendly CMS,” Umbraco gives developers the flexibility and freedom to build website, apps and other solutions with the look and features they want, while enabling editors and content creators to easily and quickly get content in front of their customers as quickly as possible. Created in 2005 by Danish developer Niels Hartvig, Umbraco also offers the Umbraco Cloud, providing all-in-one Azure hosting and predictability in cost, performance and time. More than 500,000 websites run live on UmbracoCMS and the Umbraco Cloud, supported by more than 220,000 very active Umbraco community members.  For more information, visit <a href="http://www.umbraco.com/">www.umbraco.com</a>

Umbraco Launches Version 8 of Open-Source “Friendly CMS”

<a href="http://typo3.org/" target="_blank">TYPO3</a>, the free and open source CMS with a commercial offering, and <a href="https://platform.sh/" target="_blank">Platform.sh</a>, the continuous delivery cloud hosting company, have announced that TYPO3 is available to test on Platform.sh from October 26 2016 onwards. This will give all TYPO3 users full access to Platform.sh’s revolutionary cloud-hosting capabilities.
That means it'll be ready just in time for TYPO3's next conference, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/t3con16-typo3-conference/" target="_blank">T3CON in Munich, 26-27 October</a>. All details of the Tech Preview will be provided in sessions hosted at that event – so attendance is highly encouraged for those who are serious about enhancing their TYPO3 deployments.
<h2>An Integration With Platform.sh: What It Means For TYPO3 Users</h2>
Platform.sh has established itself as the modern, preferred solution for other Composer-based open source systems such as Drupal, Magento, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/ez-systems-partners-with-platform.sh-to-accelerate-development-of-content-rich-websites-and-applications/" target="_blank">eZ Platform</a>, Sulu, and Symfony.
Platform.sh brings a range of benefits to TYPO3 users. For example:
<ul>
<li>Complete build and deployment management for Composer-based applications</li>
<li>Full management of key services such as MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, Solr, ElasticSearch</li>
<li>Eliminates DevOps overhead by providing a complete copy of the application for every Git branch</li>
<li>Flexible deployment targets around the world including the Azure sovereign German cloud</li>
<li>Strong partners with Symfony and Blackfire.io</li>
<li>Application can scale from minimally resourced development environments to deployments with hundreds of CPUs and GB of RAM.</li>
</ul>
According to the official press release, this collaboration between TYPO3 and Platform.sh is a further move towards standardization in best practices around modern orchestration and deployment.
As the news broke, TYPO3 GmbH's CEO, Mathias Schreiber, made the following comment:
<blockquote>
“We’ve followed developments in Cloud hosting and PaaS solutions closely, and Platform.sh immediately impressed us with its simplicity, flexibility and dedication to the developer’s needs.”
</blockquote>
Olivier Dobberkau, President of the TYPO3 Association added:
<blockquote>
“Aside from its intrinsic technical advantages, Platform.sh also fits the bill in delivering the mission critical cloud hosting that TYPO3’s Enterprise user base is looking for. By partnering with Microsoft for hosting in international Azure datacenters and Microsoft Cloud Germany, Platform.sh can offer sovereign, compliant and secure production hosting to TYPO3 users worldwide”.
</blockquote>
Platform.sh also chimed in via their Regional Manager DACH, Andrew Melck:
<blockquote>
“TYPO3 is the dominant Open Source CMS in Germany and much of central Europe, so we’re very excited to be working together with the team to accelerate cloud adoption among TYPO3’s massive user base.”
</blockquote>
<h2>An Early Look at TYPO3 8 LTS (April 2017)</h2>
On its way to the release of the next full version of TYPO3, the core team has examined current best practices and identified key cloud functionalities. The tech preview offers an early view of the new features, ahead of the release of TYPO3 8 LTS in April 2017.
To try out the new features for yourself, simply visit https://typo3.org/platform or visit <a href="https://platform.sh/" target="_blank">https://platform.sh</a> from October 26th 2016.

TYPO3 and Platform.sh Announce 'Strategic Integration' Ahead of T3CON in Munich

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