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Sunday, September 24, 2006

MySQL Front discontinued

I was surprised to see on Mysql-Front website this announcement:
MySQL-Front has been discontinued since MySQL AB forced us to remove this program from the market. Thanks a lot for all your help! Your MySQL-Front Team We hope the humanity will learn to work together instead of fighting another senseless...
Getting curious about this started to search on google... Lenz Grimmer clarified this for me:
Clarification: MySQL AB did not force the removal of MySQLFront Our web team informed me that we received a few comments from users about MySQL AB supposedly shutting down the development of the MySQLFront utility. I'’d just like to clarify that this was not the case at all we merely asked the developers to stop violating our trade mark as outlined in our Trade Mark Policy. As I wrote some time ago, our trade marks are a very important asset to us as a company and we need to take action, if our marks are being violated. We did not ask or force them to stop the development or to remove the program from the market completely– this was their very own decision. In fact, we actually encouraged them from the beginning of our discussion to continue the development of the product under a different name. The problem appeared resolved as the project was renamed to SQLFront and the old web site pointed to the new location - we regret that the developers decided to shut down the entire project shortly afterwards. We encourage and support every application that broadens the MySQL Ecosystem. Why would we want to completely shut off applications that support us?
Lenz Grimmer works MySQL AB as a member of the community relations team. The MYSQL AB Trademark policy provides the information related to authorized use of MySQL AB marks. The "problem" is caused by the usage of MySQL as a part of a commercial product name, that is not developed by MySQL. I still don't understand why they shut down the project and communicated that kind of message... Lack of funds and they found a way to close it and blame someone else? /Later edit MySQL Front development continues at Sourceforge under a new name HeidiSQL

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Marketing on blogs

A Romanian online gift shop launched 2 days ago a campaign named “Blog this!” The main idea is to write an article on your blog which follows the rules: - the article must contain a link to Christmas Gifts category - the article must not look like and advertisement, but cannot be strongly negative nor defaming - after you publish the article send them an email with the link - the publisher must have at least 10 articles in his blog It’s a win-win situation. The problem is that one side wins more, other side less, exponentially less… This type of advertising can be included in the broadly defined guerrilla marketing, with some viral parts, also similar with a stealth campaign, buzz marketing & co (use of social networking – blogs, the prize – I doubt the actually paid for the ads they are offering, maybe it’s a joint-venture campaign )… The goal is obvious: achieve a better visibility for a category, create a buzz, get inboud links (from >100 blogs, with the condition to be indexed by google), increase number of visitors on the website, basicly promote the store using "word-of-mouth" and buzz. The effect: - in 2 days they got 27 winners ( and all the good or bad content and inbound links) - some good “Gossip” and buzz from Radu Ionescu, Zoso, Tudor Mateescu, Blogoree Blog and others It is nice to analyze the effect of the campaign in January 2007, maybe they will publish some figures… or not. At leat check google to see how many inbound links they got and from where, and position in google for some keywords (Christmas gifts :D ), number of visitors, referrals. What can I say more? it’s a campaign, and from the figures point of view I believe it is a profitable one. Moral and profit are not in the same league.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Adobe buys InterAKT

Adobe recently acquired the technology assets of InterAKT, maker of extensions for Macromedia® Dreamweaver® from Adobe. The acquisition further strengthens Adobe’s position as a leading provider of web design and development tools. For additional information, please read the F.A.Q. page on our website.
And the 1st question in FAQ:
Why did Adobe acquire InterAKT? A: Adobe acquired InterAKT to enhance existing product lines, including Macromedia Dreamweaver and Adobe Flex. The new development center will also provide Adobe with greater access to and expertise in the Eastern European market.
Anyway, Macromedia should have done that before, but, I don't think they studied the market that well. Most InterAKT client were not from Romania... And InterAKT extensions for Dreamweaver are popular in central/western Europe and USA. As the announcement states, the direction will be continuing the production line for Dreamweaver extensions, migrate existing products to Adobe technology (myfeedz will use Flex)
We expect that most current InterAKT employees will remain with Adobe following the integration.
:) We will see about that... InterAKT had 32 employees So basicly as I see it: - Adobe work style will be implemented - personnel migration is inevitable, the company will grow, but some employees will leave (foreced or by thieir own decision) - primary focus: dreamweaver extensions and improve Adobe Flex, or just build components for Adobe Flex. - MX Kollection is renamed to Kollection, and they cannot "kill" the product, because of its customers, so I think it will be refactored to use Flex, sell it in the future. They should be able to "catch" some projects with the government, because until now, MCTI website was the only website developed by a company that knows what is doing, and not made by some kid at 7th hand... Updates will be available after I find more information.