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Oracle is stepping up their game through the acquisition of two new software companies that will enhance their enterprise content management offering in very specific industries. Some say it may finally put them in front of the pack of big boys like IBM and EMC. But how will this new offering stack up against rival Interwoven?

Sitecore recently announced the coming version of their flagship web content management system and today the product is officially out the door.

Our technical and editorial teams had an opportunity to test drive the new Sitecore 6 product last week. And with this latest version out of the gates today, we thought it apropos that we share a bit of what we saw.

In a very few words, version 6.0 is a nice corner-rounding release that demonstrates both that the company cares about its customers and that it has a successful process of building client feedback into the product development cycle.

As Web 2.0 matures, the line between marketing and customer service is beginning to blur.

Words are critical to task completion on websites and in applications. Yet they are still chosen carelessly.

The twists, turns and tips you need for staying up-to-date by the water cooler.

Highlights of the Week

• Outlook Dumped for Gmail? Time's Are a Changing. Gmail will replace Outlook as the email application for over 1.3 million students.A big win for Google, a big loss for Microsoft.
• Can Drupal Play a Role in Enterprise 2.0?. Drupal may struggle with enterprise adoption as a social software solution for two reasons, both of which can be overcome.
• How To: A Beginner's Guide to Building Web Widgets. For those who love to play and live in the WWW sandbox, this article is for you.
• The Social Media Minute. News moves so fast on the social media field, everyone needs a hand keeping up. Catch up on the top social media stories from the past few days.
• FatWire Provides Content Integration Services. Making it easier to manage and access content across the messy, complex environments we often have to deal with.
• HTML 5 New Elements, New Draft, Update Report. The W3C, like, OWNS the Web, man.
• The AP and Bloggers Agree to Disagree. The AP vs. Blogger debacle has been resolved. Sort of.

Most Popular Articles

And these are the articles you couldn’t get enough of -- if page views are anything to go by, anyways. So what was your fancy? The web publishing business, hacking and security, Web 2.0 CMS and a whole mess of MOSS!

• Google Study: Print Ads Drive Online Purchases. Lo and behold, print ad CTRs have a measurable pulse.
• New Report Cautions on Using SharePoint for Public Websites. Is choosing SharePoint (MOSS) for your public website a nail in your professional coffin?
• What is Web 2.0 Content Management? (Part 1). Come on back for a refresher course.
• How They Hack Your Website: Overview of Common Techniques. Defense is your best offense. Know the basics.
• Is Ning The Next Facebook or MySpace? Ning vs. MySpace. Oh what fun we're having.
• Results: Most Popular CMS in Technorati's Top 100. What micro publishers are using today.
• Running SharePoint on Windows Vista. MOSS developers the world over are rejoicing.

The Economy is in the Dumps but Content Management is Booming

If you're looking to advance your career, or if your org has got empty seats in need of savvy CMSers, you're in luck. Catch the best fish of the season on our content management job board.

Featured Jobs:

• Web Content Developer at Thompson Reuters
• Business Analyst at AIG
• User Experience Architect and Analyst at The Economist (New York)
• Web Technology Director at Harvard Business Digital
• Director of Marketing Operations at AIG
• Senior Project Manager at Accruent

Thanks for the support y'all. The likes of Ademero, Bridgeline Software, CMS Watch, Ektron, Ephox, eTouch SamePage, The Gilbane Group, Hot Banana, Quantum Art, Sitecore, SpringCM , Telerik Sitefinity, Xythos and of course dear old uncle Google have kept the Nespresso machines running this week. And we are thankful.

You too can help improve the content management world! Learn more about advertising with us.

Earlier this week, BusinessWeek rounded up a smattering of web experts to compose the 10 Commandments of Web Design of 2008.

With help from a variety of sources, including Steven Heller, co-chairman, MFA Design program, School of Visual Arts, Don Norman, co-founder, Nielsen Norman Group and Martin Wattenberg, founding manager and IBM Visual Communication Lab, a heavenly list of do's and don'ts was compiled.

News moves so fast on the social media field, everyone needs a hand keeping up. Except for us of course, because we are like so on the ball. Yeah...ahem...right.

On that note here are the top social media stories from the past few days, distilled into a minute's worth of scanning.

So maybe it's not the end of Microsoft Outlook, but the news coming from Australia this week may be a sign of the changing times for the mighty Marketing machine. Google's Gmail application has kicked Outlook out of the schools by Australia's education sector. The New South Wales Department of Education has announced that Gmail will replace Outlook as the email application for over 1.3 million students.

A big win for Google, a big loss for Microsoft.

The gang over at Vignette has been doing some celebrating this week picking up two different industry awards for two of their products proving they may actually know a little something about saving an organization a lot of money and delivering outstanding web experiences in this Web 2.0 world.

Attending a lot of conferences on Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 lately? Sure you've come away with some great information, probably a ton of potential vendor solutions and more consulting business cards then you've ever dreamed of having in your roledex. But are you still wondering how to implement social media on your website?

1to1 Media is having a Webinar that will be of interest to you: Get Past the Social Media Hype: Here`s how to create real value from online interactions. The free webinar will be held on Wednesday, July 16 at 2PM EST and is designed to teach you how to increase customer engagement and loyalty and drive up your marketing and sales metrics using the latest social media technologies:

• Understand how to apply the basic of social media to your business
• Learn how to select the right options and set objectives for your initiatives
• Define how each social media technology will contribute to your success
• Learn how to use these technologies to drive bottom line results.

This is not a webinar about a specific social media technology or vendor. It is business focused showing you to take advantage of these new technologies that have become essential elements of any website design today.

So if you still aren't sure how social media is helping drive your bottom line and bringing you in more customers, sign up and learn a little.

The field of virtualization just keeps a-movin'. This time, desktop/server virtualization heavy-weight Parallels is taking server virtualization into the up-and-coming realm of SaaS. Their popular OS virtualization solution, Parallels Virtuozzo Containers, has been chosen by ProServe, one of the leading ISPs in the Netherlands, to deliver a scalable, cost-efficient Online Backup solution through a SaaS model.

There's a new competition in town that seeks to award design and its impact on community. The Spark Awards, entering its second year, is focused on designed change.

Change for the better: studied, researched, cognizant of criteria like sustainability, suitability, context, inventiveness, process, universality—and yes, beauty.

We don't usually talk about client wins for vendors -- unless they are huge. And this one is a big for Web Content Management Provider FatWire. FatWire has been recruited to power the world's largest military and veteran membership organization's website -- Military.com.

Content management ain't easy, but as our saying goes -- it matters. Fortunately, companies like FatWire Software are making it easier to manage and access content across the messy, complex environments we often have to deal with. They have recently announced the availability of their FatWire Content Integration Platform as well as the beta release of the EMC Documentum connector to enable customers to more effectively manage content across complex environments.

Salesforce.com and Google have made a pretty big announcement this week. They now have a global strategic alliance. This alliance comes after the news of an integration service called Salesforce for Google Apps -- a service that integrates Google Apps with Salesforce.com and their newest venture, Force.com Toolkit for Google Data APIs. According to CNET, this is just another step in Saleforce's plan to take down the mighty Microsoft giant.

Oh writers. No one has time to read what we write anymore. Even more reason to make what you do write concise, clear and effective.

Writing for the web, no matter how many times we say it, is different that writing for print. Readers are not likely to read every word. They're going to glance, skim and scan their way through your content, most likely with a cup of coffee in hand or checking email simultaneously.

With such a wayward bunch of users, what's a web content writer to do? Chris Nodder, user experience specialist at Nielsen Norman Group thinks you simplify content to make it as accessible as possible. Most users are visiting your site through a search engine rather than going directly to a site's home page, so why not make it easy to find what they want.

Nodder offers up some "Sign Posts" indicating "where else readers can go for more specific information and related resources such as white papers".

Traditionally reserved for awarding the best in television advertising, the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival awarded a Grand Prix for a viral online video, as well, as a cyber campaign. And a groundbreaking Japanese online effort for a clothing retailer won the most coveted creative prize of all, the Titanium Grand Prix.

What has happened to television advertising? It's gone online and become interactive, that's what.

No matter how good you think your Web site's design is, accept that it can always be better. Web design is no place for the content. You must forever resign yourself to the fact that your site's usability is not going to be perfect. This is not to say your site isn't good. In fact it may be great -- but it could be better.

Or so says Jakob Nielsen in his recent article, Extreme Usability: How to Make an Already-Great Design Even Better.

J. Boye has just produced a new research report on the ever popular Microsoft SharePoint. This report, Best Practices for Using SharePoint for Public Websites - A Business Person's Guide, outlines some of the thought processes organizations have gone through when selecting SharePoint for their public facing websites, some project recommendations and dispels some of the often heard arguments for a SharePoint-based solution.