Articles - Page 158

Not All Heroes Wear Capes. Here's Why CMS Is Your 'Unsung Hero' in 2025

janus-boye

In an email sent out to members of Drupal.org and Groups.Drupal.org, Holly Ross, Drupal Association Executive Director has advised that a security breach has exposed the personal information of those registered for these sites. Information exposed includes personal information such as usernames, passwords, country information and more.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/shutterstock_135704441.jpg" alt="Hacker image by Shutterstock" /> <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&amp;search_source=search_form&amp;version=llv1&amp;anyorall=all&amp;safesearch=1&amp;searchterm=security+breach&amp;search_group=#id=135704441&amp;src=_0MCVbp98XEwZ1qDxgS9Tg-1-14">Hacker image</a> from Shutterstock
This security breach was made possible by malicious files that were placed on association.drupal.org servers via a third-party application used by that site.
Here is the email in its entirety:
<blockquote>
Dear community member,
We respect the privacy of your information, which is why, as a precautionary measure, we are writing to let you know about an incident that involves your personal information. The Drupal.org Security and Infrastructure Teams have discovered unauthorized access to account information on Drupal.org and groups.drupal.org. Information exposed includes usernames, email addresses, and country information, as well as hashed passwords. However, we are still investigating the incident and may learn about other types of information compromised, in which case we will notify you accordingly.
This unauthorized access was made via third-party software installed on the Drupal.org server infrastructure, and was not the result of a vulnerability within the Drupal software itself. This notice applies specifically to user account data stored on Drupal.org and groups.drupal.org, and not to sites running Drupal generally.
We have implemented additional security measures designed to prevent the recurrence of such an attack, and to protect the privacy of our community members.
The next time you attempt to log into your account, you will be required to create a new password.
Below are steps you can take to further protect your personal information online. We encourage you to take preventative measures now to help prevent and detect the misuse of your information.
First, we recommend as a precaution that you change or reset passwords on other sites where you may use similar passwords, even though all passwords on Drupal.org are stored salted and hashed. All Drupal.org passwords are both hashed and salted, although some older passwords on groups.drupal.orgwere not salted. To make your password stronger:
* Do not use passwords that are simple words or phrases * Never use the same password on multiple sites or services * Use different types of characters in your password (uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols).
Second, be cautious if you receive emails asking for your personal information and be on the lookout for unwanted spam. It is not our practice to request personal information by email. Also, beware of emails that threaten to close your account if you do not take the “immediate action” of providing personal information.
For more information, please review the security announcement and FAQ at  <a href="https://drupal.org/news/130529SecurityUpdate" target="_blank"> https://drupal.org/news/130529SecurityUpdate </a> . If you find any reason to believe that your information has been accessed by someone other than yourself, please contact the Drupal Association immediately, by sending an email to  <a href="mailto:password@association.drupal.org"> password@association.drupal.org </a> .
We regret that this incident has occurred and want to assure you we are working hard to improve security.
Thank you, Holly Ross Drupal Association Executive Director
</blockquote>
As mentioned in the email, a security announcement has been made available which explains the issue in further detail. You can find it here: https://drupal.org/news/130529SecurityUpdate
For those who are members of these sites and use the same password elsewhere, we recommend you update those accounts with new passwords immediately.
Stay tuned for more info.

Drupal.org Security Breach Exposes Personal Information

mike-johnston

Social is not a new buzz word.  Although we hear this term ad nauseam in most marketing, product roadmap, sales – name the department – meetings, this is an elusive topic.  Why is it so elusive?  Quite simply, this is because “social” has a different meaning to different people.  This conversation can get complicated quickly as you apply it to your CMS and overall website strategy.  So, let me demystify this for you.
But Seriously, What Does it Mean?
Social has a few different meanings.  It could mean to some people that they are able to share content on places like Facebook and Twitter.  Others may think it refers to common features like blogging and forums.  It really is just how we want to communicate and have our customers communicate with each other and with our brand.
Customers demand a different kind of website experience today.  (Yes, employees on your intranet are your customer too.)  Your customers want to communicate with your brand in a way that they’re used to in their daily life.  E-mail is boring and old.  They want to engage in a community setting.  They want to have friends, instant gratification, earn rewards, and more.  They want to feel like they are part of something.
Why a Community?  Why Now?
If you’re not leveraging a community on your website, you are missing a critical opportunity to engage with your visitors, build customer loyalty, lower support costs, and stay ahead of your competition.  If done right, a community-centric website will also keep your visitors on your site longer and cultivate brand advocates.  You’ll begin to notice that it shortens sales processes and builds word-of-mouth advertising through community generated recommendations.  After all, who trusts the car salesman over their neighbor or best friend?
Now that we understand what community is and why it is important, let’s look at the top 5 mission-critical decisions that you need to keep in mind.
<h2>1. Avoid the Nuts and Bolts</h2>
Market research has shown that building your own community software will cost you millions in development, which would likely leave you looking at purchasing an existing solution.  Make sure when you do that, you choose a solution that of course meets (and perhaps exceeds) your expectations.  This part is easy.  The hard part is not knowing what you don’t know…
Most social solutions today are hosted in a central location, forcing you to integrate with them in a way to hopefully make it appear to be a seamless transition from your website to your community.  This is clearly not ideal though and rarely works out how you expect.  Now you have to figure who is going to do that integration, how much time it will take, and how much this will cost above what you originally expected.  Don’t forget that you also now have to master this new system alongside your existing one, putting you into additional support costs right away.
You instead want to find something that fits the overall website strategy of your organization.  Why stop at just the community?  Choose a solution that also allows you to manage all of your websites, content, digital assets, users, and more.  Your total cost of ownership will definitely be better off instead of continuously bolting on a new solution every time you’re trying to solve a business problem.
<h2>2. The Only Constant is Change</h2>
You almost certainly will have the need for modification.  You might integrate custom back-end systems, an ERP, CRM, a document management system, or any other kind of application.  This is definitely a requirement of any website project today to make sure you are meeting business goals and to ensure adoption.
When you talk about choosing the solution for your community, you should also pin point exactly what it will take to make those modifications when the time comes.  Do you have the expertise in house?  Do you need to contract someone else?  Does the vendor require that they or their partners do it for you?  What are the cost differences?  Who owns the resulting code in the modification?
Probably the most important question here though is…  Will these modifications prevent you from being able to upgrade to a newer version of the software?  The last thing you want to do is get stuck in an old version or not be able to upgrade because it’s cost prohibitive.
<h2>3. Licensed to Thrill</h2>
The most commonly misunderstood concept when looking broadly over the software ecosystem is licensing.  This is never truer than in the open source space – but you want to be aware of what you’re getting yourself into regardless.
Do you own the software or are you just using it?  Does that answer fit into your business model?
If your community becomes successful, how will your cost be affected?  Are you going to be penalized for that success or can you grow your community freely?
Can you legally make modifications and where does the licensing allow you to install the software?  If you make a modification or you choose to host it in your own data center, how does that impact your licensing and support?
<h2>4. Own the Data</h2>
When you look at the various options available for community or social software solutions today, the vast majority are hosted for you.  This is a great convenience for a few reasons.  It allows you to not worry about where and how to get it up and running.  It also limits the amount of maintenance that you need to be involved in.  However, not everything is convenient about it.
You need to be fully aware of what that means to you and your business objectives.  Who owns the data?  Can you get to that data in a meaningful way?  How are you allowed to use that data?
Regardless to where and how your community is hosted, you should make sure that there are no restrictions to how you can use and access the data that is resulting from the activity of the community that you are working very hard to foster and likely paying a premium to have.  You also don’t want to invest in a model that appears to lock you in as an imprisoned customer.
<h2>5. Take it From the Horse’s Mouth</h2>
One of the things that many of us look for when making large purchases is a proof source.  You wouldn’t hire a graphic designer without seeing some examples of their work first.  The same should be true of the solution you choose to run your community.
The last thing you should do when building a community is choose a vendor that itself hasn’t proven to be able to foster its own community.  If they don’t know how to do it themselves, how can they do it for your organization?  If the vendor hasn’t been able to use their own software to build a world-class community presence, you should consider over-analyzing every detail of their value proposition and maybe even just consider another solution altogether.  Save your time.   Your time is worth something, right?
<h2>Wrap It Up Already!</h2>
Add these things together and you should end up with a rock solid solution for your organization that will allow you to meet your project requirements, align with your business objectives, and keep you agile enough to not get in the way when change happens.  It’s not easy to move from any kind of solution to another.  A social community may even be the most painful kind of solution to migrate.  Hopefully these tips will ensure that you only have to make this decision once!

Five Critical Decisions When Building a Community on Your Website

Global social media <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19816709" target="_blank">finally hit the 1 Billion user mark</a> in 2012 – and there have been no signs of slowed growth since. As they compete, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many others are slowly but surely bringing social networking to every corner of the earth.
As a result of such exponential growth, the number of content management systems dedicated to building social networking websites has greatly increased over the years. Thanks to their ever-growing number, some good old fashioned competition has spurred many social networking CMS into providing professional platforms of the highest quality. Yet at the same time, scores of poor CMS have also flooded through, hoping to nibble on a slice of the gigantic social networking pie.
To help un-blur the lines between the two groups, we have compiled 8 of the very best social networking CMS which allow you to build a well structured, professional social networking website.
As a bonus, we've also got a new post we published called “<a href="/how-to-create-a-social-network/">How to Create a Social Network</a>” that gives you full step by step instructions on the process.
<h2>1. Pligg</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/pligg.jpg" alt="pligg" /> 
The Pligg content management system was designed from the ground up to manage a website with an unlimited number of authors and contributors. In essence, all participating users are in control of the website’s content. This is in contrast to the standard website structure, where only a set few managerial or administrative members control core content.
Pligg's open-source CMS is incredibly easy to use and manage, and can easily help power social networks and other interactive communites. There are plenty of templates to choose from, along with a plethora of plugins and extensions. The software encourages visitors to register on your website so that they can submit their content and connect with other users.
The unique user driven CMS relies on independent author contributions and participation. Originally, Pligg began as a simple CMS which allowed registered users to submit, comment and vote on news stories – which, to this day, remains a key feature. Amongst other social interactions, users can vote on articles and publications that interest them, and those with most votes eventually appear on the homepage of the Pligg powered website.
<blockquote><a href="http://pligg.com/" target="_blank">Try Pligg</a>.</blockquote>
<h2>2. BuddyPress</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/buddy.jpg" alt="buddypress" /> 
As <a href="/which-cms-make-up-the-wordpress-competition/" target="_blank">WordPress continues to cruise past its competition</a> year on year, the team behind the CMS giant have also released BuddyPress, a social networking equivalent to their mainstream powerhouse platform.
BuddyPress carries the same high quality structure and presentation which WordPress is famous for. It's free, open-source and allows you to customize your social networking website to no end. Features such as comprehensive personal profiles, friend connections, discussion boards, private messaging and so on, are all implemented into the foundations of BuddyPress' comprehensive CMS. Powerful extensions and plugins are on hand to help you tweak even further.
If you're aiming to add your social networking platform on to an existing WordPress website, BuddyPress is of course the natural choice. Seamless integration with WordPress is easy to achieve, making it the ultimate social extension.
<blockquote><a href="http://buddypress.org/" target="_blank">Try BuddyPress</a>.</blockquote>
<h2>3. Elgg</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/elgg.jpg" alt="elgg" /> 
Elgg is a powerful social networking platform capable of building all kinds of social environments. The robust CMS is easy to use, comes packed with a multitude of features, and offers added functionality through various Elgg plugins.
Developing a powerful, yet simple social networking platform is easy with this CMS. Elgg uses and operates on LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) making it perfect for developers who know exactly what they're doing, and know exactly what they want. Definitely one for the web development experts to ponder over.
A strong, loyal fan base helps prop us Elgg's open-source CMS. It's not strictly for building social networking websites, as Elgg has other, less community based uses. The World Bank website for example, runs entirely on Elgg. <a href="/elgg-social-networking-cms-review-and-commentary/" target="_blank">Check out our comprehensive review of Elgg</a>.
<blockquote><a href="http://elgg.org" target="_blank">Try Elgg</a>.</blockquote>
<h2>4. Dolphin</h2>
<a href="http://www.boonex.com" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/unnamed_4.png" /></a> 
When it comes to comprehensiveness, Dolphin can't be faulted. With features like user video chat, membership, discussion forums, file sharing, user specific RSS feeds, and more, Dolphin is capable of building social networks with incredible depth.
Dolphin implements Durpal-esque “modules” which allow you to fully customize the way your social networking website will look, feel and function. Standard modules can be used, as well as the thousands of extra third-party variables found on the BoonEx market.
A wide variety of templates, paired with the ability to create your own, makes Dolphin extremely customizable. Facebook integration, built-in mass mailers and site statistics make Dolphin a pretty difficult social networking CMS to beat. <a href="/boonex-dolphin-review/" target="_blank">Check out our in-depth review of Dolphin</a>.
<blockquote><a href="https://www.boonex.com/features" target="_blank">Try Dolphin</a>.</blockquote>
<h2>5. Oxwall</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/oxwall.jpg" alt="oxwall" />
As the winner of our <a href="/peoples-choice-winner-for-best-social-networking-solution-is/" target="_blank">2012 Peoples Choice Award for Best Social Networking Solution</a>, Oxwall is a pretty impressive and appealing social networking CMS, and one that is difficult to ignore. It offers a clean, professional feel to both admins via the CMS, and to users via crisply presented templates.
Oxwall is an incredibly flexible and easy to use PHP/MySQL social networking software platform, capable of building fertile online communities. Various plugins available to Oxwall users help personalise and add social functionality to your website. The open-source CMS is great for both small-scale social networking, as well as larger, more executive style websites.
Photo and video sharing, user blogging, advertisement management and file sharing between friends, are just some of the features that make Oxwall a CMS which is to be seriously considered amongst its rivals.
<blockquote><a href="http://www.oxwall.org/" target="_blank">Try Oxwall</a>.</blockquote>
<h2>6. phpFox</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phpfox.jpg" alt="phpfox" />
Much like Facebook and LinkedIn, phpFox is able to create an online community based on social profiles and content sharing. With built-in features such as pages and groups, discussion boards, Polls, Instant messaging and so, on, you can create your own, comprehensive social network with ease. It's no surprise then, that phpFox was the <a href="/critics-choice-for-best-social-network-software-is/" target="_blank">CMSCritic choice for best Social Networking Software for 2013</a>.
PhpFox offers a variety of themes, along with a WYSIWYG editor to make life simple when it comes to building and designing your social network. Monetization through advertisements is a prominent feature, along with the extensive branding and marketing options.
Numerous phpFox extensions allow you to fully personalise and refine your social networking site, meaning that achieving a unique, aesthetically appealing interface is never too difficult. <a href="/phpfox-review/" target="_blank">Check out our review of phpFox</a>.
<blockquote><a href="https://www.phpfox.com/" target="_blank">Try PHPFox</a>.</blockquote>
<h2>7. SocialEngine</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/socialengine.jpg" alt="socialengine" />
SocialEngine is the first choice for many people when it comes to constructing a professional social networking website. It integrates directly with major social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Your members can sign up to your site with their social accounts, bringing their friends along with them. Additionally, content from your website can be shared by users via their social networks, increasing your site's public visibility.
You may even customize the way your users vote, like, comment and discuss content within your website. Such deeply customizable features are hard to find elsewhere.
Run on Amazon Cloud servers, SocialEngine is a powerful social network platform with a huge array of extensions, add-ons and features. Unlike other social platforms, SocialEngine gives you complete HTML &amp; CSS access with a convenient layout editor, so your website can look totally unique. <a href="/socialengine-review/" target="_blank">Check out our review of SocialEngine</a>.
<blockquote><a href="/social-engine" target="_blank">Try SocialEngine</a>.</blockquote>
<h2>8. Ning</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ning.jpg" alt="ning" />
Using Ning, you will be able to engage and communicate with your users on a whole new level. Thanks to a built-in email broadcast functionality for HTML newsletters, paired with beautifully presented content and interfaces, Ning is all about building communities in style.
Ning’s Social Sign-In feature makes it easy for new members to sign-up to your social network using their accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, and others. Naturally, such integration can only do good for the publicity of your website.
Your users can easily set up profiles and blogs of their own, engaging with others via comments and discussion boards. All the while, core content published by you is also presented in a way which is compelling.
<blockquote><a href="http://www.ning.com/" target="_blank">Try Ning</a>.</blockquote>
So there you have it. The 8 social networking CMS listed above each offer their own unique features, plugins and community building extras. Some of them are tailored for seasoned web development experts, whilst others cater for the less code-savvy from amongst us.
Don't forget that when you go to set up your own social network, you'll need a reliable web hosting company. We recommend Arvixe. They are currently offering great discounts to our readers, so be sure to take advantage of the offer before it expires. <a href="/bluehost">Click here to get cheap, reliable hosting from Arvixe</a>.
Yet, all of them offer sound, proven social networking structures which are capable of real growth. If you're looking to build a social networking website, you need not look any further than this list of social networking CMS.

8 Great Social Networking CMS

eZ Exceed 2.0 is the latest release of the popular extension for eZ Publish that makes the editorial workflow more efficient. . Exceed 2.0 is more intuitive and was made for content creators. With this extension, you can work up to 50% faster on either desktop, tablet or smartphone.
Here's a quick video showcasing the product in action:
http://youtu.be/PH8vdV0Yyas
Installed Exceed for eZ Publish takes about 15 minutes and the benefits are obvious right away. There are also iOS apps that you can use to edit and review content on different devices. «Mirror Browsing» in Exceed lets you mirror your desktop browsing to your iPad and iPhone. This makes checking your responsive sites a breeze.
Visit <a href="http://try.ezexceed.no/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://try.ezexceed.no</a> – and login to click around and test Exceed.

New eZ Exceed 2.0 offers faster and more efficient editorial workflow

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?

<img alt="Sitecore7" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitecore7.png" />
Sitecore is a major player in the web content management (WCM) playing field. We've kept a close eye on this CMS for a long time, tracking their improvements and success. Just today, Sitecore announced the release of Sitecore 7, which is the latest iteration of the company's unified software suite.

<h2>Sitecore 7:  Introducing Search Based Architecture</h2>
Sitecore 7 is a big jump forward for their already-advanced suite of products. In fact, the new system marks a milestone in the industry as a whole. Sitecore 7 now has a search-based architecture, which means that the system can be highly tuned to the specific needs of audiences. When CMOs and other marketing professionals possess firm control of the entire range of customer interaction, they are thus able to define and refine the approach to match an audience exactly.
<h2>Less Limits. More Power.</h2>
Sitecore is a customer experience management software (CXM) in addition to a lot of other integrated systems. One major drawback of marketing CMSs or CXMs is their constraint on content and the scalability limitations. Sitecore 7 has completely redefined the playing field with their search based architecture advancement. The search technology is pluggable, meaning that users can select the Lucene/SOLR engine they prefer.
Already, Sitecore is a leader in CXM/CRM technology. They offer one of the only unified solutions in the industry. This enables companies to provide multichannel marketing integrated with CMS, marketing, engagement automation, analytics, business processes, external tools, and databases. The unified software is massive — sure, it requires a learning curve — but it's also very powerful.
By “power” we mean limitless content, too. Chris Odom, a developer for one of Sitecore's clients, sang his praises of the system: “There is no limit to the amount of content we can store.” Another component of Sitecore 7's power is its customization due to the search based architecture. Odom says, “Our marketers can be confident that they can deliver what customers want without worrying about losing customer interest or revenues due to content that wasn’t robust enough, or relevant enough or recent enough.”
<h2>The Power of Search</h2>
It's that search based architecture we keep coming back to that helps to set Sitecore 7 apart. Search is the way we live our lives, from Google queries to that Crtl+F keystroke to find content in a document. Customers and marketers alike will benefit from having a search based system. As Sitecore's SVP of Product Marketing explained, “More ability to seve up exactly the right item at the right time to the right person.”
We think that more CXMs will be drifting toward search based architecture in the years ahead.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
The bottom line is this:  Sitecore 7 helps marketers better engage their audiences. A good CXM allows a company to better serve their audience. Improved audiences are solid customers. Sitecore 7 is a win-win-win for everyone involved.
Once again, Sitecore has proven that they can produce a system that lets marketers engage with their customers rather than get bogged down in content management and data manipulation. The new Sitecore 7 software suite is a powerful way to supercharge customer interaction, while possessing a powerful backend system.
<a href="http://www.sitecore.net/Landing/Global/Q2-2013/MCOT-XC-Sitecore-7.aspx" target="_blank">Read more about Sitecore 7 here.</a>
<a href="http://www.sitecore.net/" target="_blank">Visit Sitecore's website.</a>

Sitecore 7 Released, Boasting Advanced Search Based Architecture

daniel-threlfall

<img title="WordPress Competition" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wp-760x427.jpg" alt="WordPress-Competition" />
It is certainly no secret that the world of online content management is dominated by WordPress. Since its release in 2003, WordPress has grown to be the most popular content management system on the internet. In fact, 17.4% of all websites in existence use WordPress as their core CMS.
In terms of popularity amongst the elite, WordPress also fares the best. <a href="http://royal.pingdom.com/2012/04/11/wordpress-completely-dominates-top-100-blogs/" target="_blank">Pingdom</a> recently conducted a survey on the <a href="http://technorati.com/blogs/top100/" target="_blank">top 100 Blogs compiled by Technorati</a>, in order to analyse the diversity amongst their CMS. Unsurprisingly, WordPress was used by 48% of the listed blogs.
However, despite the dominance of WordPress over its rivals, it would be an injustice to ignore the presence and growth of the various CMS which make up the WordPress competition. Each one brings something unique to the table, and thus, each one has its own loyal fanbase.
So, which content management systems are currently forming the major WordPress competition?
<h2>Joomla</h2>
<img title="joomla" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/joomla.jpg" alt="joomla" />
Currently, WordPress' biggest foe in terms of sheer figures, is Joomla. The <a href="/wordpress-vs-joomla-a-perspective/" target="_blank">WordPress vs Joomla</a> debate has been raging for years, but the numbers never lie. WordPress boasts a 7.5million user base, whilst Joomla in the second most popular CMS, with a user base of just 1.8million.
Joomla is usually best suited to small to mid-sized websites. It looks good out of the box, and has a well structured GUI backend that offers plenty of features, and yet is still easy to learn.
The standard templates offered by Joomla are often preferred by businesses and websites offering products or services. The designs are sleek and professional, making it ideal for small to medium sized businesses.
However, the rigid, executive feel of Joomla websites, paired with a backend which doesn't match the simplicity or functionality of  WordPress, makes it unpopular with bloggers and first time web site owners.
<h2>Drupal</h2>
<img title="Drupal" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/blogger2-2.jpg" alt="drupal" />
In terms of numbers, Drupal pales in comparison to both WordPress and Joomla alike. With just a 520,000 user base, Drupal is relatively small time. However, after the release of Drupal 7 in 2011, <a href="http://trends.builtwith.com/cms/Drupal" target="_blank">those numbers certainly seem to be increasing</a>.
By nature, Drupal is slightly more complex than both WordPress and Joomla. Additionally, you will not find as many themes and templates, but the Drupal system is able to create almost anything via “modules”, which can be created, customized and optimized via the backend.
Generally speaking, Drupal is veered towards users who have past experience with web development, and who know exactly what they want from their website. Although you can do pretty much anything with Drupal, a lack of various first and third-party templates makes it difficult for most users to warm to – especially when WordPress and Joomla are offering an easier set up and design experience.
On the other hand, Drupal is renowned for its flexibility, thanks to the versatility of its module design system – which can create almost anything you want, in any way you want.
<h2>Blogger</h2>
<img title="Blogger" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/blogger2-1.jpg" alt="blogger" /> 
Third on the WordPress competition list is Google's Blogger platform. Blogger boasts a relatively modest user base of 280,000, yet is extremely popular with first time bloggers. For individuals looking to start a personal blog or small writing platform, the choice is often between both WordPress and Blogger.
Blogger's strengths lie in its simplicity. A blogging novice can get a blog up and running just as quickly as any expert. The drag and drop design features also make it easy to customize, allowing the user to spend less time designing, and more time blogging.
However, much like Drupal, Blogger lacks variety found within WordPress when it comes to themes and templates. The layout limitations imposed by Blogger maim any creativity. Joomla, WordPress and Drupal websites can be designed to a degree which makes it difficult for most people to guess the CMS behind the site. Unfortunately, a Blogger website is easily distinguishable thanks their all too familiar layouts.
Overall, Blogger's name is a befitting one. The platform is ideal for begginers looking to start up personal blogs, but users looking to excel in the blogging and business world often steer clear.
<h2>Niche Success for the Rest</h2>
Naturally, the content management systems mentioned above are accompanied by a host of others, each with relatively smaller slices of the CMS cake.
Although WordPress is the most comprehensive CMS around, its competition has made no mistake when it comes to appealing to different, more specific audiences. For example, for those looking for the best <a href="/top-8-website-builders-for-photography-websites/" target="_blank">CMS for Photographers</a>, systems such as SquareSpace and Zenfolio offer a more image based themes, which are perfect for online portfolios.
So far, the three major competitors – Joomla, Drupal and Blogger, have successfully secured their places within the sphere of content management. However, as some of the statistics show, their futures remain uncertain in the face of steady WordPress growth, and the emergence of more niche driven content management systems.

Which CMS make up the WordPress Competition?

I'm very pleased to inform everyone that we will be opening up nominations for the 2013 CMS awards on June 1, 2013. Thanks to the incredible success of last years awards, we're excited to see how things evolve for 2013.
We're also introducing some new categories for this years awards. Here's a full list of the award categories:
<ul>
<li>Best Open Source CMS</li>
<li>Best Free CMS</li>
<li>Best Small to Midsize Business CMS</li>
<li>Best Enterprise CMS</li>
<li>Best eCommerce Solution (New for 2013!)</li>
<li>Best Social Networking Solution</li>
<li>Best Hosted Website Builder</li>
<li>Best Hosted/Cloud Solution (New for 2013!)</li>
<li>Best Forum Solution (New for 2013!)</li>
</ul>
We're also including some new awards for Most Innovative in 2013 and others which will be given out as part of the Critics Choice portion of the awards.
Read more about our awards and last year's winners on the <a href="/cms-critic-awards/">Critics Choice CMS Awards page</a> and be sure to check back and stay tuned for the nominations to begin on June 1, 2013.

Nominations for the Annual Critics Choice CMS Awards open June 1, 2013!

Hotjar - Spot what confuses

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Content management vendor, Ingeniux, has announced a significant new upgrade of their social collaboration platform, Cartella with their 4.0 release. Cartella comes in two editions, Intranet and Extranet.
Some of the key benefits that Cartella offers include:
<ul>
<li>Social Software Suite One application for blogs, documents, wikis, video, image sharing, and other social software tools. With Cartella you can make social content easy to manage and share without building new silos of information.</li>
<li>Business Ready Solutions Turnkey solutions for online communities, secure extranets, and read/write employee intranets. Use Cartella across your business to accelerate productivity and extend the reach of your brand.</li>
<li>Fast Time-to-Value Launch online communities and collaboration spaces in days to deliver immediate business value. Add Cartella to your existing websites or build new communities with custom themes, applications, and business processes.</li>
<li>Built for the Enterprise Authenticate users with single sign-on, permission people and workspaces, approve content with integrated workflow, connect Microsoft Sharepoint, file systems, and other repositories, and meet key compliance requirements. Cartella is the first solution to provide the ease of social software with the control of a true enterprise application.</li>
<li>Real-Time Analytics and Social Intelligence Use Cartella's built-in analytics to gain 24X7 insight into the performance, usage, behavior, engagement, and ROI of your online communities and business collaboration.</li>
<li>Groundbreaking “Microsoft .NET MVC” Architecture Cartella is built from the ground up with Microsoft .NET's new MVC technology. MVC redefines how .NET software may be developed and extended, making it web-friendly, easy to customize and integrate, and highly secure.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Ingeniux Intranet Edition</h2>
Ingeniux Intranet Edition offers some welcome features to those looking to launch employee directories, manage documents, create secure workgroups and collaboration, and turn content into conversations with forums, blogs, and comment moderation.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/igx-cartella_profile_resize0-620x560.png" alt="Ingeniux Intranet Edition" />
 
Some of the features available in this edition include:
<ul>
<li>Departmental and group workspaces</li>
<li>Blogs</li>
<li>Document collaboration</li>
<li>Mobile access</li>
<li>Employee or member directory</li>
<li>Member profiles</li>
<li>Taxonomy and tagging</li>
<li>Enterprise search</li>
<li>Social networking</li>
<li>Status updates</li>
<li>User syncing with Active Directory, Salesforce.com, and Dynamics</li>
<li>Calendar</li>
<li>Photo gallery</li>
<li>Forum</li>
<li>Video</li>
<li>Surveys and polls</li>
<li>Time tracking</li>
</ul>
Find out more about <a href="http://www.ingeniux.com/portals-and-intranets/intranet-edition">Ingeniux Intranet Edition</a>.
<h2>Ingeniux Extranet Edition</h2>
Ingeniux Extranet Edition offers a wide variety of modules that can be used to create amazing out of the box experiences. It also incorporates integrations with Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics and Active Directory.
Some of the features available include:
<ul>
<li>Blogs</li>
<li>Document management</li>
<li>Digital asset management</li>
<li>Profiles and directories</li>
<li>Galleries</li>
<li>Video</li>
<li>Forums</li>
<li>Polls and surveys</li>
<li>Project time tracking</li>
<li>Calendars</li>
<li>Other tools and solutions</li>
</ul>
Find out more about <a href="http://www.ingeniux.com/portals-and-intranets/extranet-edition">Ingeniux Extranet Edition</a>.

Ingeniux Updates their Social Collaboration Platform, Cartella to Version 4

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/writingtools.png" alt="improve your writing" />
You've heard it ad nauseum — content is king. Yes, it's still king. Every Internet factotum must also be a connoisseur of content. If you're not exactly feeling all Stephen King about your writing prowess, there's still hope. It comes in the form of seven outstanding web tools that can kick your writing up to the next notch. You may not be publishing a bestselling novel anytime soon, but, hey, Internet content trumps action thrillers any day.
<h2><a href="http://www.keybr.com/"> 1. Improve your typing speed with keybr.com </a></h2>
Hunt-and-peck techniques will slow your writing way down. The only way to focus on improving your typing speed is to concentrate on it. Keybr.com is the tool that allows you to monitor speed and progress. You will probably notice an improvement in your typing speed in just a few weeks of using the tool.
<h2><a href="http://onelook.com/"> 2. OneLook gives you that perfect word. </a></h2>
There are times when you're looking for just the right word for a particular instance. Not just any word will do. OneLook can probably guess what you're looking for. Just type in a wildcard search, and you'll come up with a list of possibilities. They claim to have indexed 19,500,236 words. I didn't even know that many words existed.
<h2><a href="http://docs.google.com/%E2%80%8E"> 3.  Google Docs for easy, fast, and solid content storage. </a></h2>
Chances are, you already using this king-of-all-cloud-based word processors. If nothing else, Google Drive and its integrated products provide a great online storage and collaboration site. Good Docs is extremely handy as word processors go. One of the best features? It's always saving your work as you go. No more letting loose with cries of anguish when your software goes poof, taking your literary genius to a cyber grave. Google Docs has your back.
<h2><a href="http://wordcounter.net/"> 4.  Count every word with WordCounter.net </a></h2>
Don't scoff at the simple. Several times during the course of a work day, I hop over to WordCounter.net. Since I am often creating meta tags and meta descriptions for SEO clients, I need to keep track of those 160-character limits. Also, most online writers are confined to word limits for article length. WordCounter gives you an instant word count, character count, sentence count, paragraph count, sentence length average, and keyword density. Brilliantly simple.
<h2><a href="http://www.articleformatter.com/"> 5.  Strip away anger-inducing formatting using Article Formatter. </a></h2>
This close cousin of WordCounter is also very handy. If you receive content from a variety of sources and want to paste it into your website or CMS, you've probably faced the frustration of carry-over formatting junk. More often than not, you can't simply copy/paste a Word doc into a WordPress editor template without putting some messy in your code. Article Formatter is in the business of stripping away those pesky bits and presenting you with copy/paste ready text. CTRL-V with confidence.
<h2><a href="http://evernote.com/"> 6.  Evernote – a digital brain for remembering everything. </a></h2>
Evernote's remarkable capabilities as a note-taking device need to be sung louder. I use this app on my Mac, iPhone, and iPad all the time. When I'm away from my own devices, I can just log onto Evernote's web server and access all the files that I've stored there — pictures, audio, text, Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, tables, video clips, and web pages. Its power for writers is that it can instantly tuck away those aha-moment article ideas, turns of phrase, or web pages that apply to an article you're researching. I seriously don't know how I did it before Evernote.
<h2><a href="http://bywordapp.com/"> 7. Focus better and become more creative with Byword. </a></h2>
Byword is quick and beautiful. Several notable writers, all Mac-users I must say, use this writing tool as their favored mode of creating content. Maybe it's something about the sleek design and delightful UI that serves as a catalyst for inspiration. Who knows?
Just reviewing these tools gets the writing juices flowing. Maybe the real solution to writer's block is to use one of these tools. Give it a try, and you'll probably find that content flows faster, swifter, and better than ever before.

7 Online Tools to Improve Your Writing

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kokenupdate.png" alt="Koken Update" />
<a href="http://koken.me/" target="_blank">Koken</a> is <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-8-website-builders-for-photography-websites/" target="_blank">one of our picks as a top CMS</a> for photographers. Just this week, they made an already good CMS a whole lot better. Koken 0.8, announced on May 9, includes a lineup of great new features and capabilities. We'll touch on the highlights.

<h2>Make SEO-Friendly Links</h2>
Koken's old system built links in the old-fashioned ways — numerical slugs that did zilch for SEO, and even less for users. Now, the links are formatted with real text that humans can read and search engines can index. More SEO love.
<h2>Geotag Your Photos</h2>
If something as basic as Instagram has geotagging, shouldn't a sophisticated CMS like Koken? The answer is yes. Koken integrates GPS data into photos, and provides the familiar GPS locator button in the upper right corner of each featured photo. Clicking the pin brings up a map that locates where the picture was taken.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/library-geo-button-620x254.jpg" alt="Geo Button" />
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/library-geo-map-620x254.jpg" alt="Geo Map" />
<h2>Create Custom Code</h2>
For the code-savvy creative, adding a bit of Java is easier than ever before. The editor now includes a code button, which allows the user to copy and paste code anywhere in normal editing.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/custom-code-620x254.jpg" alt="Custom Code" />
<h2>Host Better Conversations</h2>
To facilitate comments and interaction, Koken has included the Disqus plugin, which is now supported by all their default themes. Users need only to set up their Disqus account and enable the plugin to let the comments begin.
<h2>Manage Covers Easily</h2>
One of Koken's biggest selling points is the slick creative interior of the CMS. It makes organizing photos, portfolios, and other digital content a snap. Now, cover images appear at the top of columns when selected. The easy drag-and-drop repositioning makes it easy to rearrange files as needed.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/library-cover-drag1-620x254.jpg" alt="Library Cover Drag" />
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/library-cover-title-620x254.jpg" alt="Library Cover Title" />
<h2>Feature More Social Sharing</h2>
Koken got more social. Each of the Koken themes automatically includes sharing buttons for four popular social media sites — Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Google+. In addition to spreading link love, these buttons help to trigger more social signals, that build rep and SEO for a site. Koken is pretty excited about the <a href="https://dev.twitter.com/docs/cards">support for Twitter cards</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/koken-social-share-620x254.jpg" alt="Koken Social Share" />
Koken describes themselves as “a free system designed for photographers, designers, and creative DIYs to publish independent websites of their work.” The sleek interface of the design and the cutting edge power make this a CMS worthy of a second look. With this update, Koken delivers more power than ever before.
<a href="http://blog.koken.me/essays/2013/05/big-new-features-fixes-and-enhancements-now-available-in-koken-08/">Read more about Koken 0.8 in their blog article</a>.
<a href="http://help.koken.me/customer/portal/articles/848339-release-notes">View the release notes for Koken 0.8.</a>
(All screenshots, courtesy of Koken.)

Koken Announces New Features in v. 0.8

Just Add Content Review

While we tend to share our own opinions on this site frequently in the form of our various CMS reviews, it's nice to hear what the rest of the community thinks as well. For this reason, today we're hoping to drive some discussion about what CMS you use and why?
Regardless of the purpose of the system, share with us in the comments what you like to use, the reasons behind it, and what you use it for. This will not only help us learn about possible systems we may have missed in our coverage, but it will also serve as an excellent resource for those who are in the market for a system and are unsure what to choose.
<img style="max-width:570px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/content-management.png" alt="Content-management" />
So whether you use one of the big three, something cool for enterprises or you develop on a framework that has really made you feel like you were getting something accomplished, please share your thoughts on why you think yours is a great choice for your needs.
We'll also use some of this feedback as a basis for our <a href="/cms-critic-awards/">CMS awards</a> which are coming up again in September of this year.  While we tend to share our posts to various networks such as LinkedIn and others, we'd like the comments to be kept here for future visitors to get something valuable out of so we'd appreciate you sharing on this site.
Thanks and we look forward to your responses!

What CMS do you use and why?

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