It’s good news to see Drupal getting more and more main stream recognition. Gartner has added it to it’s Visionary Quadrant.
It is good to see Open Source software showing up well in the Visionary and Ability to execute axises.
http://buytaert.net/gartner-puts-drupal-in-visionary-quadrant
The mobile web continues to grow dramatically. It is no longer possible (if it ever was in the past few years) to ignore this growing online population. It is critical to include Mobile Internet customers as well as social media in your business plans.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/27/mobile-web-usage-keeps-on-growing-and-growing-and-growing/
Major Changes in the Search World
Bing and Google will now (or will shortly) be indexing tweets near real time. This is a disruptive change to search and how businesses can leverage it. It will be interesting to see how today’s major search players handle short messages and what attributes they find most useful.
It is no longer possible for your business to ignore social media. Be sure that you are on enaged and therefore stay on the map of potential customers. Traditional SEO strategies will need to evolve to include an integrated traditional web and social media approach.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/21/get-ready-for-the-firehose-search-is-about-to-get-realtime-real-fast/
As a business person pondering the future of the online world, there are many variables involved. Investing in a new online solution may be daunting indeed. Which technology to use? Which hosting partner to select? Which video service to use? What eCommerce shopping cart to use? Which Inventory Management system? Which Content Management System?
Each decision could leave you either ahead of your competition, or dramatically behind them. Not in the next few months perhaps, but definitely when those contracts come up at the end of the year.
Prices will continue to drop on the Internets’ commodity items (storage, bandwidth, server size and speed). That is inevitable. The challenge is trying to ensure that you haven’t ‘painted yourself into a corner’. When your contract come up, what kind of leverage do you have? Is your system portable? Do you know how to move your online sites? Can you do it quickly and cost effectively? Imagine the leverage of having the ability to ‘zip up’ your sites, and move them to a new provider within hours.
The answer to each of these questions will either increase or decrease your leverage in negotiating. This is a competitive challenge. If you don’t have the leverage to change vendors, take advantage of new features, and lower your costs; then you can’t maximize your online business presence. Even worse, what if your competition can? What will the impact to your revenue and margin be?
How comfortable are you with your technology choices?
There are some great resources out on the web for backing up and restoring drupal sites. Be sure that you get this configured and running long before you need it. There is nothing worse then needing a backup and not being able to restore it. It could be anything from a module install gone bad, to a server failure.
Here is a great example: backup and restore scripts
The main Drupal site has great resources as well: drupal backup and restore
If you would like to learn more, or just have someone set it up for you, let us know. Contact us here
This WSJ article provides great context for Social Media discussions. If you or your business doesn’t have a strategy for Integrating social media, you will definitely be at a competitive disadvantage – personally and professionally.
Contact us for more information on how to better integrate your social media and web platforms.
#socialmedia
This is good news for the andriod market. More device penetration gives businesses and developers more incentive to create applications for the android phones.
RT @abelperez: Verizon And Google Form Strategic Android Partnership http://bit.ly/2aaHZd
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1357/newspaper-remain-main-watchdogs-and-source-of-news
The need for a new business model is pressing.
RT @DonLinn WOW. This is news. RT @PublishersLunch: Stanford Closes Publishing Course, and Studies Possible Successor http://bit.ly/hQ9Gp