Contentful Rolls Out New AI and Personalization Capabilities, Ramps Up R&D for its DXP 31 Mar 11:12 AM (3 days ago)
In the battle for CMS and DXP supremacy, AI is on the front line – and that’s never been more apparent than in the latest crop of Forrester and Gartner analyst reports. As you might expect, these research dossiers are dense jungles, and there’s a fair amount of data and narrative to weed through. But if you boil it down, it’s clear that the focus ...
‘The Composable Conference 2025' Takes Shape as MACH Alliance Announces Speakers and New Events 30 Mar 9:29 AM (4 days ago)
There’s a composable breeze that's building in “The Windy City,” and it might just knock you over. The MACH Alliance is landing its much-anticipated annual event (redubbed “The Composable Conference”) in Chicago this year, and it’s shaping up to be a powerhouse of brands, industry thought leaders, and stellar sessions. This year’s gathering will ta...
Lights, Camera, AI Action: Key Takeaways from Wistia’s 2025 ‘State of Video’ Report 26 Mar 12:37 PM (8 days ago)
“Video isn’t the future. It’s today.” No, this line didn’t emerge on a slip of paper from a fortune cookie. It’s the opening salvo in Wistia’s 2025 State of Video Report, which just hit the airwaves this morning. Oracles and crystal balls aside, the observation can’t be overstated. Video has never been more relevant or relied on by marketers and br...
Survey Says? CallMiner Rings the CX Bell with New AI-Powered Customer Feedback 25 Mar 1:14 PM (9 days ago)
If you’ve ever watched the TV game show Family Feud (I’m dating myself with this reference, but it’s been through multiple reinventions over the years), then you know how heated the competition can get. Sure, it’s all in good fun. But I think a few members of the losing teams have been unceremoniously “left out” of their family wills – all for mis...
Replay it again, Sam: Amplitude’s ‘Session Replay Everywhere’ rocks with analytics visualizations 25 Mar 5:02 AM (9 days ago)
Imagine you're in a smoky bar on some random city street, swallowed by the night. Inside, it’s barely lit, the dark wood glowing faintly beneath two neon signs as they buzz in the windows. One reads “A.” The other flashes a “B.” Through the haze, a guitar wafts a melancholy melody into the air. A dark figure hovers over the fretboard, crooning som...
Read it and weep: Greg Dunlap's new book on content authoring experiences is a treasure 13 Mar 5:39 PM (20 days ago)
So… how do you feel about your CMS? Do you love it? Do you hate it? I know, I know. It's a complicated question. Most of us would probably say it's a little of both. There are loyalists out there, to be sure – hardcore fanatics who find little fault in their CMS stars. Others had a platform thrust upon them by their organization with no input what...
Still the ‘Wiz’ of WYSIWYG: CKEditor keeps innovating with new Image Optimizer to improve CMS UX 8 Mar 4:57 AM (26 days ago)
When it comes to UX, we tend to wizzywag around the value of the WYSIWYG. It's true. Even though WYSIWYGs are a foundational part of so many software experiences, we take them for granted. Maybe it’s because they feel a little commoditized, offering similar features and functionality. But is that true? Some WYSIWYG experiences are elegant and robu...
Accenture Song brings its composable commerce ‘music’ to the MACH Alliance. Here’s why it matters 3 Mar 12:18 PM (last month)
If there’s a lyrical hook to describe Accenture Song, it might be Tom Petty’s chorus on “Runnin’ Down a Dream” from the seminal Full Moon Fever album. The narrative unfolds on Petty (presumably), who is driving some metaphorical highway,“workin’ on a mystery” and “goin’ wherever it leads.” Hopefully to the aforementioned dream. When Accenture r...
The Envelope, Please: We Proudly Present the Winners of the 13th Annual CMS Critic Awards 28 Feb 4:43 PM (last month)
The Oscars might have Conclave, but we have content. And Demi Moore can have The Substance – because we've got the schema. Sure, it would be great for Conan O'Brien to host the 13th edition of our world-famous CMS Critic Awards, but we've got something even better than the Academy: You. That's right. YOU. You activated your communities and rallie...
Sitecore Scores with Hundreds of AI-Powered Innovations for its Intelligent DXP and CMS for Marketers 28 Feb 8:02 AM (last month)
In the icy doldrums of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, February might not seem like a haven for holidays. But look a little closer, and you’ll realize it’s jam-packed with reasons to celebrate. Like… Groundhog’s Day. Mardi Gras. Valentine’s Day. National “Ice Cream for Breakfast” Day (for real). Forget those. This is the month when the NFL's S...
It’s an AI Agent world. Is ‘Agent Experience’ the secret weapon for controlling the chaos? 27 Feb 2:02 PM (last month)
Every time I hear ”AI agent,” I think “secret agent.” The allusion is obvious, but I'll blame it on the varnished set of Ian Fleming novels sitting on my office shelf, featuring a debonair Lotharian spy, James Bond. You know him: 007. Casino Royale. The infamous “license to kill.” Martinis shaken, not stirred. Bond was skilled, suave, and seductiv...
Livin’ on the EDGE? Contentstack’s new ‘Adaptive DXP’ might just rock your world 26 Feb 11:52 AM (last month)
Whenever I hear Aerosmith’s Livin’ on the Edge, I’m obliged to provide a little headbanging. This iconic, heart-pounding anthem from the early ’90s requires me to push the decibel limit in my HOA's compact. It might not be good for the ears (or neighborhood tranquility), but it's great for the soul. Maybe you can relate. These days, it feels like ...
Vev’s Time Has Come: Interactive Content Builder Acquires TIME Sites, Adds Marc Benioff to its Cap Table 26 Feb 4:43 AM (last month)
When I recently spoke to Vev’s CEO, Tine Karlsen, she was at home – surrounded by a cacophony of cardboard boxes. “We’re renovating our bathroom,” she said lightly. “What you're seeing are glass walls and stuff.” Bathroom renovations can be arduous. Don’t get me started on the plumbing. But that kind of pipework might be cake in comparison to what...
Trust and Verify: When Internet Drama Meets AI Reality 22 Feb 6:28 AM (last month)
Tom Cranstoun, “The AEM Guy,” is the principal consultant at Digital Domain Technologies Limited and a CMS Critic contributor. I have a confession to make: Recently, I read an article about DeepSeek's "scary" terms of service and immediately shared it with my colleagues. I was enjoying my coffee and browsing Medium when I came across this alarm...
Can content management be ‘joyful’ again? Storyblok Labs promises fun and possibility in its innovation playground 19 Feb 2:26 PM (last month)
When acclaimed New York Times columnist David Brooks spoke at a college commencement in 2019, he observed two key emotions at play during the event. One was happiness. The other was joy. As he explained in an article recapping his experience, “happiness” usually involves a victory for one's self, usually around personal accomplishments. “Joy,” on ...
U Can’t Touch This CDP: Hightouch Nails $80M Series C to Power its AI Decisioning 17 Feb 1:38 PM (last month)
MC Hammer didn’t invent parachute pants, but he switched up the game. What started as nylon slacks imbued with countless zippers became a loose set of low-riding billowy trousers—perfect for his frenetic form of hip-hop dancing. But don’t call them parachute pants. They’re Hammer Pants. Customer data platforms have also been “hammering” out th...
Getting Loud with XM Cloud: Sitecore Reports 100% Growth of its AI-Powered Cloud-based CMS 11 Feb 10:04 AM (last month)
If 2024 left you feeling a little whiplashed, you’re not alone. A lot happened. AI changed everything – again. Markets struggled to find footing. And there was a presidential election here in the States that’s still reshaping the roadmap. For Sitecore, it was a transformative 12 months, specifically around its focused investment in XM Cloud, the c...
First Look: Cloudinary’s New AI Vision Brings Brand-Safe Gen AI Capabilities to its DAM 10 Feb 4:42 AM (last month)
Cloudinary is anything but ordinary. Particularly in the innovation department. The image and video platform, which boasts an intelligent digital asset management (DAM) system trusted by global brands, has been furiously injecting generative AI features across its portfolio. And man, there’s some stuff to talk about. While some of these features a...
Uploadcare Video CDN Adds Seamless Uploading and Streaming as a Native CMS Capability 5 Feb 1:41 PM (last month)
Content comes in all shapes and sizes. And while video is just one form, it’s arguably the most immersive (we’ll save AR/VR and the infamous “metaverse” for future analogies). Video delivers a lot – not just in terms of its storytelling value, but also around its brand impact. According to Animoto, 91% of businesses now leverage video as a key mark...
'Copy and Paste' Makes Waste? Not with Pantheon’s Content Publisher for Google Docs 4 Feb 12:39 PM (last month)
I have a confession: I’ve never been a fan of writing in my CMS. Any CMS, for that matter. And I've used a lot of them. Call me “old school,” but I entered the tech field at a time when computers were a lot more prone to crashing. You can only take so much of that dreaded “Blue Screen of Death” – or watching your work vaporize after an app fails –...
Reflections on a Third Sitecore MVP: A Community That Opens Doors 3 Feb 5:03 AM (last month)
Matthew McQueeny is a North American Peer Group Leader for Boye & Company, Head of Relationships at Konabos, and a CMS Critic contributor. Last week, Sitecore unveiled its 2025 class of Most Valuable Professionals, known across the industry as “Sitecore MVPs.” This hallowed tradition, now in its nineteenth year, celebrates individuals who displa...
Ready to vote? Here are the nominees for the 13th Annual CMS Critic Awards 30 Jan 8:40 AM (2 months ago)
AI might be stealing the spotlight these days, but CMS is still the star on our stage – and you nominated some amazing platforms for our 13th Annual CMS Critic "People's Choice" Awards! Once again, your performance wowed us. We had some heavy hitters make the cut, but a few challengers really brought the rain – from Wagtail to HamsterCMS. We receiv...
Hightouch Taps Adam Greco as Product Evangelist, Strengthening Its Leadership in Composable CDPs 28 Jan 11:40 AM (2 months ago)
Since 2018, Hightouch has been “high touch” when it comes to data. The pioneering composable customer data platform (CDP) and AI decisioning company has been on a tear recently, doubling its revenue and growing its team. Hightouch is finding success with enterprises that prefer flexible, composable alternatives to traditional CDPs, which are often ...
BizStream Acquires Refactored, Adds Strategic Digital Services and Headless CMS Accelerator 28 Jan 5:11 AM (2 months ago)
Digital agencies are like the heroes in a Greek myth. Driven by a quest for creative glory, they partake in an often perilous business odyssey. Along the way, they acquire “supernatural” skills and knowledge to help them navigate the competitive sirens and conquer impossible feats of digital transformation. At the same time, growth requires a bit ...
In a fast and furious tech world, CMS Kickoff 25 was a ‘love letter’ to slow down 26 Jan 12:24 AM (2 months ago)
In the high-speed action blockbuster Fast Five, there’s a scene where the lead character Dom Toretto (played by the Herculean Vin Diesel) says: “There’s always room for family.” Even if you’ve never seen any of the 10 features or two spin-offs from the Fast & Furious franchise, you probably know these films are about cars. Fast cars. Muscle cars. S...
As AI-generated search grows, Otterly is utterly awesome for marketers. Here’s why 24 Jan 4:36 AM (2 months ago)
If you’re not familiar with otters, you’re missing out on one of nature’s quirkiest marine creatures. As members of the weasel family, these charismatic sea critters aren’t fish-like in the least (more like rodents with personalities). In fact, they have the thickest fur of any animal, with up to a million hairs per square inch. This keeps them co...
Hungry for Composable? New Research Shows a Growing Appetite for MACH Technologies 21 Jan 4:34 PM (2 months ago)
Welcome to 2025! I hope you brought your appetite – because there's already a lot on our collective plate. As the world spins wildly in the wake of a “new” American president (and an avalanche of policies that will significantly impact trade, tech, and the broader economy), enterprises are struggling to read the tea leaves. On one hand, the outlook...
Reflections on CMS Kickoff 25 from ‘The AEM Guy’ 21 Jan 4:26 AM (2 months ago)
Tom Cranstoun, “The AEM Guy,” is the principal consultant at Digital Domain Technologies Limited and a CMS Critic contributor. As I reflect on the CMS Kickoff 25 Conference—held at the James Museum in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida on January 14th and 15th—I'm struck by the exceptional quality of insights shared by every speaker. Organized by...
Generative AI is Making Content King Again 16 Jan 3:02 PM (2 months ago)
Michael Spenceley is Leader, Learning & Content Standards - Innovative Medicine at Johnson & Johnson and a CMS Critic Contributor. If you're a content professional, you've likely spent much of your career focused on how to govern the accuracy and quality of content. As Generative AI (Gen AI) has entered our collective corporate consciousness, our ...
Contentstack just acquired Lytics, a real-time customer data platform. Here’s why it matters 8 Jan 3:05 AM (2 months ago)
When I spoke to Neha Sampat last week, I was Zooming in from my bedroom. It was the day after New Year’s, and with family still lingering, I was looking for a spot to hide out. I told her that on an earlier call, someone mentioned that my room “looked like a hotel.” To be fair, my wife and I are minimalists, and we run a tight ship. For someone who...
Your Voice, Your Choice: Nominations are Open for the 2024 CMS Critic Awards 5 Jan 12:08 PM (2 months ago)
There's no denying that 2024's Wicked is an Oscar-worthy flick. In fact, it's already been shortlisted for multiple categories. But hey, we think CMS is pretty wicked, too. And there are a few platforms that might be spellbinding enough for a trophy or two. Of course, it’s not up to us – at least not during the annual CMS Critic Awards. During thi...
The Sommelier of MACHtails: Sommsation’s Danielle Diliberti Uncorks Composability 31 Dec 2024 5:53 AM (3 months ago)
Unlike a fine wine, technology doesn’t get better with age. We call all drink to that. Ah… if only code matured like a Cab, maybe we wouldn’t be in a constant cycle of change. You could bottle an app once, put it on the rack, and let its tannic profile blossom into greatness. But alas, the soil of the digital vineyard isn’t sown as such. Pour an...
Revisiting 2024 Predictions on the Future of CMS 30 Dec 2024 4:15 AM (3 months ago)
Andrew Kumar is the Global Vice President of Customer Solutions and Ecosystem at Uniform and a CMS Critic Contributor. I delivered the closing keynote at the CMS Kickoff Conference in St. Petersburg, Florida, in January 2024. This event, part of the CMS Experts working group, provided an excellent platform for sharing insights and predictions abou...
Is the AI ‘Doomsday Clock’ ticking for developers? Don’t fear the Reaper 28 Dec 2024 9:25 AM (3 months ago)
“All our times have come… Here, but now they're gone…” I don’t think the boys of Blue Öyster Cult were crooning about AI and the fate of developers back in '76. Then again, the album featuring the band’s most popular hit was titled Agents of Fortune. Like… AI agents? A tad prescient, perhaps? Maybe this calls for a little more cowbell: Despite ...
What's the MACH vibe in 2025? Here are 3 predictions (and more) 23 Dec 2024 5:22 AM (3 months ago)
I’ve always loved Johnny Carson’s “Carnac the Magnificent.” Yeah, I'm dating myself with this admission, but I’ll hide behind an innocent fanboy affectation for kitsch Tonight Show sketches that were well before my time. I mean, maybe not “well,” but I'll take what I can get. If you’re not familiar with the act, Carson would don this iconic feathe...
Ibexa and Quable Join Forces, Unifying DXP and PIM Capabilities 19 Dec 2024 7:13 PM (3 months ago)
Ibexa isn’t just quibbling with Quable. They’re going all in on PIM. The digital experience platform – headquartered in Norway with offices worldwide – recently announced that it has merged with the product information management system. According to Ibexa’s blog, the combination will accelerate each company’s individual development plans while of...
Down the Agency Rabbit Hole: A Post-Opticon Chat with Chris Kostakis, CTO at Hero Digital 19 Dec 2024 4:13 AM (3 months ago)
You know what they say about rabbits multiplying. That might be one reason why Optimizely chose “Onederland” as the overarching theme of its 2024 Opticon User Conference. The name instantly conjures the feats of Alice, chasing her own rabbit down a hole in the ground and emerging in another world with a similar phonetic moniker. Literary allusions...
Canto PIM Unites DAM and Product Information Management, Streamlining Asset and Data Workflows 12 Dec 2024 12:58 PM (3 months ago)
A bit of translation trivia: the word “Canto” means “singing” in Spanish. Perhaps, then, it’s apropos that the company called Canto – a leading digital asset management software platform – is crooning a sweet tune about its latest innovation. Is it Swift-worthy? Sure sounds that way. The song they’re spinning is the new Canto PIM, a comprehensive...
WP Engine wins an injunction against Automattic. Is the WordPress 'scorched earth' campaign over? 11 Dec 2024 5:02 AM (3 months ago)
If you haven't heard, there was some legal news yesterday. Big news. I’m not talking about the failed bid by satirical media site The Onion to buy Alex Jones’ far-right empire, including the defrocked Infowars website. Yesterday, a bankruptcy judge squashed the deal, ruling that the auction process was unfair. No, I’m speaking of the other statuto...
Legacy CMS leaving a lump of coal in your stacking? Research says the best gift could be headless 5 Dec 2024 8:21 AM (3 months ago)
It wouldn’t be December without a Christmas story that warms your heart. Especially if it’s three sizes too small. Of course, every good holiday tale needs a protagonist who experiences some magnificent transformation. So let’s start with a little Scrooging before pouring the spiked egg nog. Our merry friends at Storyblok, a headless CMS that has ...
Agility CMS Web Studio Aims to Streamline Content Creation and Collaboration 24 Nov 2024 1:38 PM (4 months ago)
During a recent Agility CMS “Ask Me Anything” webinar, I was subjected to a trifecta of “dad jokes” – courtesy of Joel Varty. In addition to his part-time standup vocation, Joel is the Chief Technology Officer of the Toronto-based headless content management system, where he’s spent almost two decades innovating around digital experiences and supp...
MACH Alliance Taps Dylan Valade of Abbott to Drive Expanding rideMACH Education Program 21 Nov 2024 5:29 AM (4 months ago)
Education beats at the heart of the MACH Alliance. And rightly so. Even as the market embraces more composable technology solutions, there's still a lack of general awareness of what MACH truly represents – both from an architectural standpoint and from business and philosophical perspectives. This might sound a bit obtuse or even highfalutin, bu...
A late 2024 field trip: 2 days at the Kentico Connection conference 19 Nov 2024 4:36 PM (4 months ago)
In a confusing marketplace, who do buyers turn to in order to create better digital experiences? One of my key takeaways from two days at the Kentico Connection conference – held in Miami this month – is that they increasingly turn to their trusted digital agency. Kentico, an established global CMS vendor from the Czech Republic, seems to have rea...
Cloudinary Assets Brings New AI-Powered Features to its API-First ‘Intelligent DAM’ 18 Nov 2024 8:33 AM (4 months ago)
Seems like we’ve been talking a lot about DAMs these days. Why? Because there’s so much DAM stuff to deal with. It’s true. Many large enterprises have thousands – even millions – of digital assets spread across a myriad of systems and databases. At the same time, marketing teams are under increasing pressure to work faster while maintaining contr...
CoreMedia’s New KIO AI Promises the ‘Biggest Leap’ in CMS Productivity in Decades 12 Nov 2024 9:58 AM (4 months ago)
I didn’t have a chance to ask Sören Stamer what the three letters in KIO (pronounced “kee-yo”) stand for – and I quite prefer it that way. It leaves the acronym completely open to my imagination. Could it be “Knowledge In Overdrive?” Maybe “Key Intelligence Orchestrator?” What about “Keep It Optimized?” It’s a long shot, but I’m banking on “Kick-a...
Umbraco Engage Enhances Digital Personalization to Drive Higher Conversion Rates 11 Nov 2024 9:58 AM (4 months ago)
Ah… personalization. Like it or not, it’s still the Holy Grail. And we’re still in search of its full potential. While the promise of scalable personalization remains a bit elusive for many companies (there are a bevy of reasons for this), CMS and DXP platforms have discovered some finely cut diamonds in the rough – making it much more attainable....
Acquia Introduces New AI-Powered Video and Image Features for Acquia DAM 6 Nov 2024 9:23 AM (4 months ago)
In the pantheon of DAM solutions, AI has been an undeniable game changer. Along with enhancing search and impacting overall productivity, it’s also proving valuable from a generative content perspective. The latest example of AI innovation in the “DAMsphere” is from Acquia, which has been steadily infusing artificial intelligence into its platform...
Sanity Acquires Begin Team, Aims to Accelerate the Evolution of its Content Operating System 3 Nov 2024 12:31 PM (5 months ago)
When I spoke to Mathias Billman recently, the word sanity popped up more than once during our conversation. It wasn’t an off-color reference to the chaos of our modern digital ecosystem, but the evocation of a content management tool that frequently rides alongside Netlify – a leading web development platform he co-founded. Of course, this is logi...
Opinion: Universal CMS? From a pragmatist, it’s not yet so "Universal" 28 Oct 2024 6:12 AM (5 months ago)
Andrew Kumar is the Global Vice President of Customer Solutions and ecosystem at Uniform and a CMS Critic Contributor. Let's start by acknowledging something “Universal” in nature: Being a critic is not always easy. Albert Einstein: "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."...
Webflow Laces Up its Animation Shoes with GreenSock, Unveils New AI Features 23 Oct 2024 11:55 AM (5 months ago)
Put on your dancin' shoes, 'cuz Papa’s got a brand new sock. And it's green. To say that Webflow is getting “animated” about its recent acquisition would be an understatement. At last week’s Webflow Conf 2024 – the company’s annual hurrah catering to designers, developers, marketers, and even business leaders – CEO Linda Tong announced that the web...
Sitecore Rocks and Rolls in Music City: The Top 5 Tracks from Symposium 2024 20 Oct 2024 7:58 PM (5 months ago)
Highlights Sitecore Symposium 2024 was held at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville from October 15th – 18thThe world-class event featured hundreds of sessions and use casesSitecore announced it had surpassed $500M in ARR, carried by strong demand for its XM CloudThe company unveiled its new Sitecore Stream, an AI-powered service targeted at marketing...
Contentstack’s “Retire the Legacy” offers big savings by shedding older CMS tech. What’s behind the deal? 15 Oct 2024 5:14 PM (5 months ago)
For brands in any industry, competing on price can be a slippery slope. In some cases, it’s an elevator to the bottom floor – even an indicator of broader commoditization. There’s a case to be made for aggressively grabbing market share if conditions are ripe, like when products are experiencing higher-than-average churn or delivering a poor experi...
New Logo, New Leaders: MACH Alliance Announces Key Board Appointments and Brand Refresh 14 Oct 2024 2:52 PM (5 months ago)
A logo can be an incredibly divisive thing. Think about it: A person or business endeavors to crystallize its brand tenets with a singular pictographic touchpoint, balancing legibility with artistic flare – and hopefully communicating something about its purpose. Accomplishing that is a tall order. Then you realize everyone has an opinion. It make...
Sonic Boom: Sitecore Surges Past $500M in ARR. Here’s Why It Matters 12 Oct 2024 12:02 PM (5 months ago)
The coolest thing about a sonic boom is that you can feel it. I kid you not. As the bird flies, I live less than 60 miles from Cape Canaveral, home of Kennedy Space Center – the most active spaceport on the planet. Rockets launch almost daily and can be viewed with the naked eye. Even at this distance, the flight of a Falcon 9 is audible. But it...
Netlify Unveils AI-Assisted Publishing and Other Enhancements at Netlify Compose 2024 Conference 7 Oct 2024 10:47 AM (5 months ago)
AI is still raging like a fever – even if the temperature isn’t spiking quite as high as a year ago. Don't get me wrong: the market's still being greeted with a healthy dose of daily innovation. We're even seeing up-and-comers like Cerebras challenging the Goliath Nvidia. And while opportunities persist, some of the future potential is also cloude...
Acquia Cloud Next Achieves FedRAMP Authorized Status 3 Oct 2024 11:38 AM (6 months ago)
FedRAMP is one of those squashed-together government acronyms that most laypeople will never be privy to. It stands for the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, which empowers agencies to use modern cloud technologies to securely handle federal information – which, as you can imagine, is some of the most sensitive data in the world. ...
Adobe Podcast Amplifies Wistia with AI-Powered Enhance Speech Capabilities 25 Sep 2024 2:07 PM (6 months ago)
Digital video is at the core of modern marketing – and for good reason. For the first time ever in 2022, U.S. consumers spent more time watching digital video than traditional television. According to industry estimates, that trend persisted in 2023, with online video consumption reaching over three and a half hours a day. That’s a lot of time spe...
Seeing in a Headless World: Contentstack Introduces New Visual Building Capabilities for Marketers 24 Sep 2024 12:43 PM (6 months ago)
They say seeing is believing. And what I’ve seen in 2024 has made this “The Year of Visual Builders and Editors.” Hold your applause. I think the marketers in the room are fainting. But it's true. Going back a bit, we’ve seen the slow and steady march of tools that stitch together the missing visual threads for headless CMSes. The pace has picked...
Brightspot Shines with New Version of CMS, Doubling Productivity with Expanded Integrations and AI Features 23 Sep 2024 1:47 PM (6 months ago)
If there’s a bright spot in content operations, it’s speed. And with the latest version of Brightspot’s content management platform, the company is promising some serious acceleration for users. Announced last week, Brightspot's new CMS update includes expansive tech stack integrations and new AI features that aim to speed up creation time by prio...
MACH Alliance Empowers Gender Equality with New Women in MACH DEIB Scoring Tool 22 Sep 2024 10:42 AM (6 months ago)
The MACH Alliance has always maintained a fiery passion for challenging the status quo and tearing down walls. Its zeal has been reflected in the championing of composability and a persistent quest for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems. Since its founding in 2020, the organization has also become an ambassador for change within the “human”...
Slam DAM Dunk: Canto Acquires Image Relay, Plans to Align DAM and PIM Features 17 Sep 2024 1:03 PM (6 months ago)
DAM is hot. Red hot. Like Steph Curry from the three-point line. The reason is clear: we’ve got too much stuff dribbling on our digital courts. Handling the “brand ball” across distributed global teams, remote workers, and diverse channels is getting increasingly complex. As such, many organizations are often one foul away from using the wrong asse...
The Right Person to Lead: Umbraco Appoints Mats Persson as CEO, Reflecting Growth Ahead 4 Sep 2024 4:20 AM (7 months ago)
What does it mean to be “The Friendly CMS”? I don’t ask to be coy or sarcastic. This tagline has reached legendary status at Umbraco, permeating its messaging for years. There’s clearly something sticky about it. In the most reductive sense, one might conclude it’s a content management system that’s easy to use. Or, as the mantle suggests, “user-f...
Storyblok just hired a CMO with Adobe and Sitecore pedigree. Here’s what it signals for the future 29 Aug 2024 10:36 AM (7 months ago)
The mantle of “CMO” is a bit of an albatross. Much like the ancient mariner, anyone fuddling in this C-level role might find the journey replete with danger. To be sure, it’s an important job, shouldering the massive responsibility of driving revenue and swimming in the deep end of a vast data pool. It also has the distinct reputation of being th...
The Swiss Don’t Miss on Open Source: How Switzerland's EMBAG Law is Evolving the OSS Landscape 1 Aug 2024 6:40 PM (8 months ago)
If there’s a song lyric that captures the ethos of Switzerland, this one comes to mind from Fleetwood Mac: “You can go your own way…” This classic was spinning on turntables and jukeboxes in the mid-1970s, but the Swiss have been rockin’ to the beat of their own drum for over 500 years – back when the country first established its venerated stance...
Roadmap to Digital Experience Success: Six Ways to Future-Proof Your CMS While Elevating Your Tech Teams 24 Jul 2024 6:36 PM (8 months ago)
In today’s competitive business environment, delivering dynamic experiences across multiple digital channels is becoming increasingly important. In the past, a traditional monolithic CMS was the go-to solution for managing website content in bulk, offering a comprehensive approach with integrated frontend and backend functionalities. However, as th...
Publish and pray? No way. Uniform's Visual CMS + Experience Manager is heaven-sent for marketers 22 Jul 2024 10:31 AM (8 months ago)
How does one describe Andrew Kumar? Let’s try this: an intrepid soul on the digital frontier. An avid explorer restlessly digging through the detritus to uncover what’s below. Or maybe a brilliant guy who’s never really satisfied with the simple explanation – and thrives in the untangling. Our conversations have always been engaging, challenging, a...
Optimizely Introduces New SaaS CMS with Visual Builder for Marketers 21 Jul 2024 9:03 AM (8 months ago)
Optimizely is gettin’ SaaSy with us. Along with its growing spade of enterprise-focused digital experience products – including its industry-leading content management system – the company just added a new SaaS CMS to its empire of offerings. That might be enough of a game-changer, but the plot thickens: The package also includes its new Visual Bu...
Responsible AI Principles for Digital Marketing and Content Teams 11 Jul 2024 4:18 AM (8 months ago)
Skip the intro and directly access my downloadable Responsible AI Principle worksheet for your team now. An Introduction to Responsible AI for Digital Marketing Teams In today's digital age, artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly become a cornerstone of marketing strategies and tactics, driving innovation and efficiency across various tasks that ...
Data & Trust Alliance Releases v1.0.0 of Data Provenance Standards, Enhancing Data Quality for AI 9 Jul 2024 12:27 PM (8 months ago)
When I spoke to the incomparable Kristina Podnar last November, she was – in a word – ecstatic. And rightly so: the Data Provenance Standards, an initiative she helped guide into existence as Senior Policy Director at the Data & Trust Alliance (D&TA), was finally emerging from the chrysalis and taking flight. The D&TA has become a leading voice in ...
New CI HUB Drive Enables Desktop Access to DAMs, PIMs, and More 8 Jul 2024 12:13 PM (8 months ago)
CI HUB has been a persistent explorer of in-app connections. The company’s software enables users to access and manage content from various key sources, including DAM (Digital Asset Management), PIM (Product Information Management), cloud storage, stock sources, and even work management systems. Connectors like this have become critical to product...
Yo Ho! Gartner’s New Magic Quadrant for Search and Product Discovery is a Compass for CX 5 Jul 2024 9:35 AM (9 months ago)
In the first (and arguably best) Pirates of the Caribbean movie, the main character Jack Sparrow – played by the talented, if not controversial Johnny Depp – has a trusted compass in his possession. ‘Twas a MacGuffin of sorts, a light part of the plot that came in handy at just the right times. A compass might seem apropos for a seafaring bloke. Bu...
VShift Introduces AEM Digital Experience Accelerator to Help Launch Faster on Adobe 26 Jun 2024 8:27 AM (9 months ago)
The digital experience landscape wouldn’t exist without Adobe – and more precisely, its Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) platform. AEM has long held the crown in the kingdom of DXPs (just as Gartner), and leading global enterprises depend on its scale of features to power the most complex and demanding digital strategies. While ubiquitous, the Adobe...
Amplitude Launches New Analytics Integrations for Contentful, HubSpot, WordPress and More 25 Jun 2024 5:47 AM (9 months ago)
Data is, without question, the most valuable currency to any business. That said, digital analytics have taken on a pronounced role in making data actionable and impactful to an enterprise – particularly when it comes to its products and experiences. Amplitude has long established itself as a leading platform in the digital analytics space, due in ...
Kentico Marks 20 Years of CMS Innovation and Leadership 24 Jun 2024 9:39 AM (9 months ago)
Turning 20 is a milestone for everyone. It’s your second decade, a rite of passage into adulthood. You’re not exactly a “kid” anymore, but you’re still at the beginning of your story – and ready to write the biggest chapters of your life with (hopefully) a little experience under your belt. The same is true for businesses. Reaching 20 years means ...
Clarks, Kraft Heinz Take Top Honors in MACH Impact Awards at MACH THREE 21 Jun 2024 11:55 AM (9 months ago)
As a digital analyst – and, at heart, a guy who just likes to write stories about cool people and tech – I try to bring an outside perspective to everything. Sometimes, I’m just beyond the perimeter. Others, I’m inside it. More on that in a minute. Let me start today with one of our favorite words: composable. I’ve long held that it is, indeed, a “...
Webflow Appoints Linda Tong as CEO, Vlad Magdalin to Remain as Chief Innovation Officer 18 Jun 2024 7:34 AM (9 months ago)
Maybe you've noticed, but there's been a bit of “sea change” in CMS leadership over the last year (among other industries). Here are just a few examples of the notable transformation at the top: In November of 2023, Kontent.ai appointed Mark Ruddock as Chief Executive. In April of this year, Contentful’s Steve Sloan left the post where he served si...
Umbraco 14 Blossoms with a Fresh Architecture, Delivering Enhanced Customization and Extensibility 14 Jun 2024 2:54 AM (9 months ago)
“Fresh” is a fun word. It just rolls off the tongue. Sure, it's most often associated with flowers, or maybe clean shirts drying on a clothesline in the warm breezes of a June afternoon. But sometimes, it’s a perfect fit for describing technology. And why not? Who doesn’t like that “fresh car smell” when they crack open a new dashboard or peruse t...
J.P. Morgan Joins MACH Alliance, Reinforcing Growth of Composability in Digital Financial Services 12 Jun 2024 11:44 AM (9 months ago)
J.P. Morgan is one of the most iconic and recognizable brands on the planet. As a leading financial services firm, it has long been at the forefront of fintech innovation, where trust is the foundation of every digital decision. In terms of its scope and scale, J.P. Morgan is handling an epic number of transactions. In fact, its J.P. Morgan Payment...
Pulp fiction payday? Here’s why Squarespace is trading public life for a juicy private deal 12 Jun 2024 7:11 AM (9 months ago)
I was recently in Paris, where, along with the Eiffel Tower and a metric tonne of boulangeries, there are 76 McDonald’s restaurants. That might seem like a decent concentration for a single city, but consider that the entire country of France is home to 1,560 MickyD outlets. That makes it the largest European market for the fast-food chain – and a ...
Amplitude Amps Up Snowflake AI Data Cloud with Product Analytics 6 Jun 2024 1:13 PM (10 months ago)
Amplitude continues to prove its value as a go-to product analytics platform, especially around its Snowflake applications. To that end, the company just announced the general availability of its Snowflake native offering, which allows organizations to leverage Amplitude’s product analytics capabilities without their data ever leaving Snowflake. T...
Contentstack Fires Up Brand-Relevant, AI-Powered Personalization at ContentCon 2024 5 Jun 2024 12:29 PM (10 months ago)
Austin is serious about its barbecue. Just let that word sink in for a moment: Barbecue. If your mouth isn’t watering, let me further tantalize you with a fiery visage of hot ribs and brisket slathered in a spicy sauce, dripping with smoky goodness, piled on a tray with extra-creamy coleslaw, black-eyed peas, and a few fried pickles for good measur...
Storyblok is writing its next chapter with an $80M Series C. Here’s why it matters 4 Jun 2024 6:08 AM (10 months ago)
There are 80 million reasons why Dominik Angerer is excited. Let’s start with the first one: Storyblok is on a roll. It’s true. The headless CMS – now shifting to a simple yet elegant position as a “modern content management system” – has built an impressive cohort of over 200,000 happy developers and marketers around the globe. How happy, you as...
What is a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system? 1 Jun 2024 10:33 AM (10 months ago)
A Digital Asset Management (DAM) system is a comprehensive solution designed to efficiently store, organize, manage, retrieve, and distribute an organization's digital assets. It combines software and business processes to centralize and streamline asset management, offering a more structured approach to handling media and content. DAM encompasses ...
Zengenti’s Insytful Offers an Easy, Affordable Solution for Managing Accessibility and Governance 31 May 2024 12:44 PM (10 months ago)
Naming a product, service, or business is the hardest part of any brand hustle. If you've ever been tasked with this burden – or even been part of the process – you know what I'm talking about. Coming up with a fresh flag to wave is challenging enough, but making it intuitive and meaningful is like catching lightning in a bottle (look no further t...
Optimizely Leads Gartner's 2024 MQ for Content Marketing Platforms as More DXPs Join the Game 22 May 2024 12:55 PM (10 months ago)
Content marketing is a bit like playing Centipede. If you're not familiar, this was a legendary 1980s arcade game created by Atari and famous for its trackball input, a unique implement in the pantheon of standard joysticks. That trackball was slick, man. It made the whole experience fluid, slinky, super fast – and a little hard to control. The ...
Acquia Survey Reveals Brands are Paying the Price for Digital Accessibility Deficiencies 16 May 2024 6:07 AM (10 months ago)
May 16th is Global Accessibility Awareness Day. It's a moment to reflect on how far we've come in our quest to build a more accessible world and discuss the continued work ahead. On the digital side of the ledger, there's still a lot to do. In honor of the 13th annual GAAD (we love our “shortcodes” in CMS, and this is a helpful one), Acquia – a le...
Optimizely Surges to $400M ARR, Pegs Growth on Demand for its Marketing Operations System 15 May 2024 6:00 AM (10 months ago)
It's a glass-clinking, champagne-drinking moment by all accounts. Optimizely, a leading digital experience platform (DXP), just announced that it has surpassed $400 million in annual recurring revenue after experiencing four consecutive quarters of double-digit growth. Not a bad haul for a company that started life as a CMS in 1994. Back then, it ...
IKEA, MARS, Ulta Beauty and Influential Brands to be Featured at MACH THREE Conference 14 May 2024 5:02 AM (10 months ago)
As we turn the corner towards summer in the Northern Hemisphere, things are heating up in the composable world. Fresh off the publication of chiefmartec's 2024 State of Martech Report – where composability was a key topic across the 14,106 products in the marketing technology landscape – we're also a month away from the industry's premier composabl...
Painting by numbers: Where CMS fits in the 14,106 products on the 2024 Martech Supergraphic 12 May 2024 9:30 AM (10 months ago)
Confession: I'm an art lover. I can’t get enough of it. Modern. Antiquity. Banksy. The whole gamut. How much do I love it? Well, along with other, shall we say, more practical specialties, I graduated college with an art history degree. I’ve also dragged my progeny through countless museums during school vacations, much to their delight. I though...
Acquia Enhances Website Accessibility with Monsido, Now Supports WCAG 2.2 Guidelines 3 May 2024 11:56 AM (11 months ago)
Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is an annual event that focuses on access and inclusion. Each year, it draws attention to the vital role of digital accessibility, encouraging communities to think and discuss its impact on the one billion people worldwide with disabilities and impairments. GAAD will take place on May 16th, enshrining this...
Solodev Launches New AI Cloud Platform for Building, Training, and Hosting Custom AI Apps and Models 3 May 2024 9:27 AM (11 months ago)
Artificial intelligence keeps steamrolling almost every part of the tech conversation. Even as litigation heats up around copyright issues – with authors like Margaret Atwood and Dan Brown demanding OpenAI (and others) stop training on their content – the AI machine is full speed ahead. And it makes sense: there are already numerous provable bene...
From Trailer Park to First Female CEO of a Semiconductor Company: A Conversation with Christine King 2 May 2024 12:52 PM (11 months ago)
“I don’t like being bored.” That was one of the first things Christine King said to me during our recent chat. Take a quick gander at her resume and you’ll see it’s true. This powerhouse of a woman hasn’t stopped since 1973 – and that’s just the way she likes it. Before her breakthrough role as the first female CEO at AMI Semiconductor, Christine...
Builder.io nets $20M from Microsoft's venture fund. What it means for the future of headless CMS 1 May 2024 6:43 AM (11 months ago)
“If you build it, they will come…” Maybe the team at Builder.io was channeling that phrase as they forged their roadmap for innovation. It’s clearly working. And if the apotheosis isn’t self-evident, “they” refers to the almighty Microsoft. Pedagogy aside, “they” just delivered a Field of Dreams to the AI-powered “visual headless CMS” to the tune o...
Untangling the CMS market in 2024 30 Apr 2024 6:17 AM (11 months ago)
Janus Boye is the host, lead, and coach at Boye & Co and a CMS Critic editor and contributor. “Straight talk” is a style of communication aimed at solving problems without blaming or defending. In that spirit, let me open this traditional annual marketplace update with the current state of affairs: Few organizations are using a CMS to actually m...
Kontent.ai Aims to Lead a 'New Era of Content Management,' Relaunches Brand and Website 24 Apr 2024 5:06 AM (11 months ago)
“All vendor websites look the same today.” That was an observation volleyed by Andrew Kumar of Uniform at a recent Boye & Co CMS Experts session in Toronto. Is he right? Far be it from me to appear “critical” of the field, but it kinda comes with the territory – and a quick perusal would seem to validate the comment. Some of the sameness might be ...
Contentstack ‘Reigns’ on Cloud Choice with Addition of Google Cloud Platform 23 Apr 2024 1:09 PM (11 months ago)
When I spoke to Nishant Patel last week, he was floating on cloud nine. You might assume it’s because the company he co-founded, Contentstack, just announced the addition of Google Cloud Platform to its offerings. This puts the headless CMS-turned-composable-DXP in the unique position of providing deployments across all three of the major cloud pro...
Webflow Buys Intellimize: Why It's An Intelligent Buy 19 Apr 2024 12:30 PM (11 months ago)
When it comes to AI, every technology vendor is being compelled to go with the flow. Seriously, though, is it even a choice? Can you afford to sidestep the infusion of artificial intelligence into your platform? Can you kick the LLM down the digital field and “wait 'n see” how it all shakes out? Probably not – if you want to stay in parity with co...
Eco-Friendliness in the CMS World 17 Apr 2024 6:42 AM (11 months ago)
Lasse Fredslund is Product Owner at Umbraco and a CMS Critic Contributor. “The Cloud is on the ground,” says digital sustainability expert and author, Gerry McGovern. A strange statement, yes, but then it’s supposed to make us stop and think. Right now, we all need to stop and think about how we can each do our bit to prevent global warming. In ...
The Salesforce Blues? Why investors are singing a sad song about a deal to buy Informatica 16 Apr 2024 2:40 PM (11 months ago)
I got the Salesforce Blues…Even Slack can't pick me up…I got the Salesforce Blues…Is Informatica outta luck? Oh, Salesforce. Even legendary blues disciple Robert Johnson couldn’t pen a sadder tune about these troubled waters. What did you ever do to deserve this reaction? Before we discuss any “deals with the devil” or take riders to Rosedale, let’...
Strapi Casts for Growth in the Headless Sea: A Conversation with CEO Pierre Burgy 15 Apr 2024 1:05 PM (11 months ago)
I’ll say it: the word “headless” isn’t exactly a great catch. Or catchy, for that matter. I’m not alone in this opinion (or malady, take your pick). It suffers a multitude of problems, but mostly a basic lack of brand appeal. We all get it. The idea of “cutting off” a head – be it from a fish or a presentation layer – is intuitive enough. But can...