I’m a huge fan of Seth Godin. I own several of his books and keep track of his blog posts. He’s an excellent speaker, as well. Between inspiring words of wisdom and thought-provoking commentary, he produces what I refer to as “reference posts” – blog content that can be cited as a go-to resource, rather than a “one off” update or piece of advice.
Adobe is taking over the world, one software package at a time. And now they’re acquiring Omniture, a leading web analytics/online business solution provider.
Adobe started their behemoth growth by dominating the design and graphics field with Photoshop and Illustrator; print document creation with Acrobat (PDF) and InDesign; multimedia production with AfterEffects, Premiere and Audition; web production with their acquisition of Macromedia (thus inheriting Dreamweaver and Flash, et al) plus the recent creation of the Air platform (for application development and deployment), not to mention content publishing with Contribute. And although ColdFusion isn’t the most well-respected coding language on the web, the inherent relationship with other Adobe products will likely work to it’s favour.
By taking over Omniture, Adobe is pretty much a complete solution for online businesses. Every aspect of the web development process can now be solved with an Adobe product.
SAN JOSE, Calif. and OREM, Utah — Sept. 15, 2009 – Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) and Omniture, Inc. (Nasdaq:OMTR) today announced the two companies have entered into a definitive agreement for Adobe to acquire Omniture in a transaction valued at approximately $1.8 billion on a fully diluted equity-value basis. Under the terms of the agreement, Adobe will commence a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Omniture for $21.50 per share in cash.
Adobe’s acquisition of Omniture furthers its mission to revolutionize the way the world engages with ideas and information. By combining Adobe’s content creation tools and ubiquitous clients with Omniture’s Web analytics, measurement and optimization technologies, Adobe will be well positioned to deliver solutions that can transform the future of engaging experiences and e-commerce across all digital content platforms and devices.
The combination of the two companies will increase the value Adobe delivers to customers. For designers, developers and online marketers, an integrated workflow — with optimization capabilities embedded in the creation tools — will streamline the creation and delivery of relevant content and applications. This optimization will enable advertisers, advertising agencies, publishers and e-tailers to achieve greater ROI from their digital media investments and improve their end users’ experiences.
I’d love to use the Adobe suite in a more thorough fashion, but until that time comes, I’ll be eagerly watching from the sidelines.
Search Engine Roundtable posted a demo of a new Google News feature called “Fast Flip“. In a nutshell, Fast Flip allows users to scroll through screengrabs of news headlines from various websites.
Aside from being visually grabbing, I really don’t see a huge benefit to Fast Flip vs. traditional RSS feeds or aggregated content (Google News). As a reader, my interest is in the content itself, not the aesthetics – however pleasant they may be – of the website on which the story has been posted.
Where I do see some use coming through, however, is in Fast Flip folding into a Google offering for traditional print publications.
Flipping through pages of a magazine or newspaper is status quo, and until now, that experience really hasn’t been successfully mimicked online (in my opinion, anyway). Fast Flip could be a step forward for transitioning newspapers – and other print publications – into the digital medium.
Update: Time for me to declare ignorance! The obvious tie-in between publishers and the web was the entire purpose of Fast Flip, as pointed out in the official Google blog post. This is what happens when you don’t catch up on your RSS feeds – you read a single blog post and start thinking you’ve thought of something original. Oh well.
For the sake of saving some extra cash, I’m contemplating a change in my current services setup with Cogeco.
The Quebec-based telecom recently completed an overhaul of their site (thank god), but despite the overall improvement to navigation and usability, I can’t help but question the choice of imagery for the header of the site.
Seriously, guys – this image is more frightening than it is endearing:
I’m not a professional photographer – not by a long shot – so any potential photo blogging that I do will never rival the artistic brilliance of something like [daily dose of imagery]. Nonetheless, since I have an iPhone, I feel like I have some sort of obligation to put the technology to use.
Long story short = I’ve started uploading snapshots to my often-neglected Flickr account, and I’ll do my best to keep it semi-updated.
Here’s a look at what’s currently kicking in the gallery:
You can keep tabs on my Flickr account over at http://www.flickr.com/photos/andymci/. I’ve also started to increase activity on my public Facebook profile as well, so you can stay up-to-date with my daily doings via FB. (If you so choose, even though I’m not that interesting.)
I’m chilling at the Sleepless Goat Café on Princess St. in downtown Kingston, waiting for my lunch of Koodoo Noodles to arrive, typing away on my netbook while catching up on web trends through popurls.
I don’t usually do things like this, mind you. I typically spend my lunch hour at the office, working away while sipping at coffee. But I felt like I needed a change of pace… something new, something different, something to “shake up” the monotony of day-to-day routine.
Give and Take – Striking The Balance
Should I be concerned about the dip in productivity, now that I’m no longer using the lunch hour to get things done? Perhaps. But I do keep myself busy with productive activities (as noted above), even if the activities aren’t directly tied to ongoing office tasks.
Balance, they say, is an important part of life. Whatever the subject may be, nothing is good in excess, and that’s something that I really need to work on. I find myself settling into habitual activities all too often, and while I do like the stability of repetition, I also know that it lends itself to missed opportunity.
Sure, an hour a day may not be much for discovering untapped opportunity, but it’s better than nothing.
Known for eliminating labor costs, it is one of a family of four work processes characterized as an on-going endeavor undertaken to create a repetitive product or result which planned, executed and controlled. (Artisan Process, Project Process, Operations Process, Automated Process)
While the term may generally refer to manufacturing and production, it also works with content development and the web-related industry.
Make it faster. Make it efficient. Make it automated.
I’m a big fan of automated processes for two reasons. Firstly, automated processes make things happen faster – especially when you transform manual routines into efficient day-to-day habits. Secondly, automated processes are easier to follow through for repetitive tasks.
Tonight was interesting. I stopped at a coffee shop near my office to meet with one of the local entrepreneurs that I regularly do business with. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss a website revamp and upcoming projects. It was the first time in a long while that I’ve sat down to discuss niche marketing with anyone, so the gears in my head were a bit rusty for the first bit of the two-hour discussion.
The individual I met with – let’s call him Ian, for the sake of simplicity – had a clear goal in mind for where he wanted to go with his company. He admitted that there was no guarantee that the goal would become a reality, but he knew it was possible, and I agreed that he was headed in the right direction.
Many things were discussed – personal branding, website development, competitor activities and potential for future growth, just to name a few. I lost track of time (hence the two-hour duration), but it was definitely an enjoyable meeting. It ended on a particularly high note, too…
Summer is wrapping up and we’re heading back into another academic year. High School students and Elementary School students have already returned to classes this week (for the most part, anyway), and the Post-Secondary students are about to make the most of these last few days of vacation. As a recent college graduate, I feel that it is my duty to throw some handy advice to my former comrades. Hopefully it’ll be of some use.
Why Use Facebook?
There are tons of alternatives to Facebook for managing group projects, but I found this to be the best method in my 2nd year of college. The advantages were fairly obvious.
All group members were familiar with the site.
Everyone had an active account.
The likelihood of alerts and messages being read on Facebook were higher than any other system.
Using Facebook allowed us to fit group project management in with daily routines.
By using Facebook, members never had to be nudged about checking in or responding to group discussions. It was just a natural part of being on the site and communicating.
