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Posts Tagged ‘content management system’

Yahoo to Upgrade its Content Management System

April 14th, 2011 No comments

Content management system technology is growing by leaps and bounds in all industries. As more organizations need an efficient method of organizing, searching for and retrieving data, the technology advances. Unfortunately, Yahoo is slowly becoming more removed due to its archaic system which has been compared to “two arthritic camels trying to mate in a pool of quicksand.” As a result, the company is overhauling their entire system.

A  Tremendous Scale Upgrade

Yahoo recently announced its plans to implement a full scale upgrade to its content management system to remain competitive in the marketplace. The main focus of the upgrade will be the software writers use to publish blog posts, videos and articles. Of course the content writers and producers for Yahoo couldn’t be happier with this decision and are excited for implementation.

The Challenges of an Old System

Since the content writers and creators use this system to output interesting tidbits of information each day, they experience the challenges a slow-outdated content management system produces on a daily basis. One writer was quoted as saying (with regards to the content management system) that it is “a clunky HTML labyrinth.”

Keeping up with the Competition

With competitors like Google and Bing, to remain a major player in the competitive market of news and advertisements, the company must constantly be on top of new technology to improve the output of their writers and content creators.

Proprietary Systems

With so many content management systems available on the market, it is unlikely Yahoo will select a basic commercial product. Instead, the system will likely be proprietary so they are able to customize all features that improve the efficiency and productivity of writers and content creators. Therefore, blog posts will be available quicker and more bells and whistles will be added to make the content look much better.

Yahoo Information

Founded in February 1994 and incorporated on March 1st, 1995, Yahoo is an American corporation that provides various Internet services across the globe which include advertising, communication, content, co-branded internet services, e-commerce, mobile services, personal information storage and small business.

The implementation of a new content management system to the Yahoo platform will significantly improve the company as a whole, especially in the content department. It appears as if Yahoo’s old publishing system will not be missed and the new system is motivating writers at the company.

WordPress Recovering from DDoS Attack

April 4th, 2011 No comments

Industry-leading open-source blogging platform WordPress was hit by a major Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on Thursday, March 3rd, 2011. The report released by “The Register” states that the attack caused major disruptions and performance issues for sites that totally rely on the platform for creating and publishing content.

The Largest DDoS in Company History

Another web hosting source, TechCrunch, released further information stating that WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg claimed this DDoS attack was by far the largest he had seen. He believes this strike was politically motivated against one or many of the non-English speaking blogs. However, there is no evidence to the reason. This assault was so large; it affected all three of the company’s data centers in Dallas, San Antonio and Chicago.

The Size was Incredible

According to Sara Rosso, a representative for WordPress, the company is being targeted by large-scaled DDoS attacks affecting the connectivity to many blogs and websites. The sheer size of the harassment was multiple Gigabytes per second and tens of millions of packets per second. This is definitely in the record books of being one of the largest DDoS attacks ever on a content management system.

Quick Turnaround Time

According to Lloyd Budd, the WordPress.com VIP hosting services lead, Rosso released this statement to the public at 3:30 PM on Thursday with the site being 100 percent functional with no connectivity issues by 7:30 PM the same day. That is an extremely quick turnaround following such a major assault.

VIP Sites to have Priority

The upstream service providers have been working on preventing these types of attacks in the future. The company also announced they will be giving their VIP sites priority following the recovery from an attack such as this.

10 Percent of the World’s Websites

The WordPress platform currently services over 30 million publishers making them responsible for almost 10 percent of all websites in the world! WordPress.com boasts over 300 million unique visits each month. Therefore, when a disaster such as the aforementioned occurs, the results can be devastating.

DDoS attacks can have a major impact on the site or network they are attacking. Since this type of assault freezes or shuts down the server due to overload, it is difficult to defend against and impossible to predict. The best defense is being able to switch web accounts to a different server as soon as this occurs thus minimizing downtime and continuing to uphold performance.

 

Conventional Web Development Vs Content Management Systems

March 23rd, 2011 No comments

Creating user friendly and informative web pages is perhaps the most important aspect of being a successful webmaster and online business owner. After all, visitors come to your website for one of two reasons only – to find useful information or resources, or to possibly purchase a product or service. Either way, you’ll need to ensure that site navigation is simplified and user-friendly in every way possible in order to maximize conversion rates and turn site visitors into customers and/or long-term clients. Of course, there are several ways to accomplish this; you can create basic HTML web pages, or you can utilize a content management system to automatically generate template-based pages that can be quickly designed and changed within a user-friendly backend interface. If you’re having trouble deciding which method would be most effective, consider the information contained within the following paragraphs.

Saving Time and Money

The above statement is somewhat redundant, as time actually equals money in the busy world of e-commerce. By utilizing a content management system rather than manually creating HTML pages, you not only save a lot of time (which directly equates to profit), you’ll also eliminate the need to pay a professional programmer to provide ongoing assistance and maintenance. You can easily invest the amount of money saved into new websites and online business endeavors, which you’ll have more time to promote as you’ll no longer have to go through the tedious outsourcing or coding process associated with creating HTML web pages. In fact, the content management system like WordPress it is possible to create an entire website within just a couple of minutes using predesigned templates.

Overall Site Performance

By using a CMS you’ll not only save time and money, you’ll also increase your overall web development capabilities and enhance the functionality of your websites in general. Content management systems can be expanded instantly with the addition of plugins, which are basically extensions that improve existing functionality or create new features within the user interface of the CMS. These plugins can aid in a variety of webmaster tasks, including search engine optimization, content organization, and even automated website promotion. Not only will your capabilities as a webmaster be improved, but the capabilities of your visitors in relation to site navigation can also be enhanced. For example, content management systems allow you to add widgets and sidebars that make  site navigation and browsing a more enjoyable experience.

Customization Capabilities

Content management systems allow you to use templates that automatically change the design of every page on your site, without changing the content of the pages. Thus, it is possible to customize your site to your likings by repeatedly applying different templates and previewing them within the backend interface of the CMS. You can even tweak individual themes by going into the theme editor of your content management system and making slight adjustments to the CSS stylesheet. Alternatively, you can utilize one of the many user-friendly theme design applications available, which let you utilize drag-and-drop and point-and-click functionality to create your own custom themes.

An Excellent Content Management System for Small Businesses

March 2nd, 2011 No comments

One of the greatest keys to a successful website is having the right tools and resources at your fingertips. If you are operating a small business, consider the Alfresco open source content management system for improved organization, document sharing and communication. For instance, if one document needs to be edited by two employees, Alfresco allows for access to that document by anyone at the company.

Alfresco is an excellent choice for small businesses because it supports the following functions:

  • Document storing
  • Collaboration
  • Workflows
  • Serves as a publishing platform
  • Storage

Since Alfresco is open-source, there is no cost to begin using and testing it with your business. The company has also released an enterprise version that is not completely open source and provides many features not found in the open source variant. For instance, the enterprise version is compatible with SQL Server and Oracle. It also assists with setting up enterprise extensions, clustering and Service Level Agreements.

If your company is larger than 100 employees, then you most likely need more of these additional functions. The community or fully open source version is typically for small to medium-sized businesses while the enterprise or partially open source edition was developed with the medium to large-sized company in mind.

To begin using the free version of Alfresco without having to fiddle with installation, it is recommended to use BitNami Stack. This program produces all the “stacks” of software needed to successfully run complicated applications like Alfresco. BitNami Stack even configures programs like MySQL, Tomcat and Java for you to make installation a breeze.

There are many options for installation including an installer for Windows, Mac OS and Linux which will add the necessary files to a server without interrupting desktop software. For instance, if you already have MySQL installed, BitNami Stack’s Alfresco installer will not reinstall MySQL. Instead, the installer creates a directory for Alfresco allowing you to manage the program.

Another popular option is virtual machine images which creates VMware Images and can run on any version of VMware. BitNami Stack is fully compatible with this software and if you increase the allocated disk space and RAM, the virtual machine will run perfectly. Alfresco is an excellent choice for all business sizes. The program offers many features that are needed by all forms of business today to help them organize and properly manage their content.

Top Five Reasons for Using WordPress

February 14th, 2011 No comments

Whether you’re a web developer, blogger, novice web designer, or just a web visitor enjoying reading online content, then you’re probably not surprised to see WordPress as a popular content management system used to deliver an increasingly majority of online content.

From easy to use web design features, to optimal security provisions, many companies are enthralled with the options WordPress offers.  Although many are attracted by the free content management system, numerous online business owners claim that after working with WordPress for only a brief time, most say that they would continue implementing WordPress, even if a fee was to be incurred in the future.

What is WordPress Hosting?

WordPress is a user-friendly and unique programming content management system that offers so many options that it’s widely acclaimed as an all-inclusive CMS, especially for e-Commerce entrepreneurs.  WordPress is an open source system available for download on the Internet at no cost to users.

Other advanced website developers consider WordPress the Rolls-Royce of content management system.  The cliché “you get what you pay for” doesn’t apply to WordPress.  Even as a free content management system, it offers an innovative and cutting-edge platform with a primary focus on usability and web-related principles.  WordPress is so simple that even beginner web designers are capable of creating an impressive website and getting their own blog up and running in no time.  The only requirement needed is a valid e-mail address!

Advantages of WordPress

While all the exciting perks of WordPress far out exceed the limit of the scope of the article, consider the top 5 advantages:

  • Cost Effectiveness – A WordPress blog is free to download – enough said!  WordPress is a unique programming system that offers so many options that it’s considered the perfect option for e-Commerce ventures.  If you decide you wish to upgrade your WordPress features, then there’s lots of information available about upgrading features.
  • User Friendly – The WordPress content management system platform is runs smoothly with simple GUI, or a graphical user interface.  The user-friendliness is optimal for blog and e-Commerce exposure.
  • Better Search Engine Optimization – WordPress provides better search engine results through careful coding and programming of domain names and tags, which potentially can land your website on top of Google’s rankings.  With WordPress’ ability to automatically upgrade, online businesses are guaranteed the most current SEO to help their business be successful in maintaining a strong web presence.
  • One Step Installation – WordPress is a one-click installation.  For beginning web designers, nothing is simpler!  Many online businesses no longer need to hire professionals or technical specialists charging ridiculous prices per hour to do the same thing you can do yourself using WordPress with a one-click set-up installation process.  In addition, WordPress requires minimal maintenance efforts.
  • Good-bye Spam!

WordPress utilizes pre-installed Akismet to thwart spam. Akismet is web host service that saves valuable time and resources by detecting spam comment and trackbacking the spam’s source automatically that it doesn’t clutter up your blog!  It basic terms – it blocks spammers from posting annoying ads to your site or blog.

While these are just a few of the favorable advantages of WordPress, with all the combined features, it’s easy to see why WordPress is so popular, and how the co tent management system is revolutionizing the world of  e-Commerce and the blog-o-sphere.