Europe News & Articles

Some call it the post-PC era, like former Apple CEO Steve Jobs would. Some claim that the popularity of tablets and smartphones is just a fad, as former Asus Chairman Stan Shih once said. But make no mistake about it: Mobile Internet is on the rise. In fact, IDC says mobile Internet access will overtake wireline access by 2015.

UK mobile marketing and service provider Mobileweb Company has recently announced the release of m.Discovery, a mobile optimization platform designed for delivering content on multiple mobile platforms. Targeted at brands with multiple products, services or branches, the platform optimizes content for viewing on almost all mobile devices.

Russia's leading search company -- and the world's seventh-biggest search engine -- has recently completed its initial public offering, opening at higher-than-expected US$ 25 per share and raising US$ 1.3 billion in the process.

Too often companies say one thing and mean another. In the case of SnapLogic (news, site), part of the funding received in December of 2010 was earmarked for expansion into Europe. It delivered on the promise.

Cloud computing is not only a technical and business concern, but also a legal and regulatory issue given the fact that users are essentially handing over the management or storage of their content and data to third-party service providers. In some jurisdictions, it is unlawful to store sensitive data offshore, hence reducing the viability of running cloud deployments. A recent study commissioned by the European Union warns that public clouds might not be suitable for government use, given certain restrictions.

Browser wars are getting more dramatic. For the first time ever, Mozilla Firefox (news, site) overtakes Internet Explorer. For now the dominance of Firefox is only in Europe but is this the beginning of the end for Internet Explorer (news, site)?

Cloud computing is not only useful for enterprises but it also can be beneficial for the economy of a county, country or a whole continent. A recently released Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR ) report states that Europe alone can gain 763bn Euros in five years, if it rides the cloud.

In order for real communication to happen, especially among people from different regions and dialects (let alone people from different countries and languages altogether), terms have to be clearly defined so that everyone is starting from the same point. The problem with such definitions is that the devil really is in the details.

In early 2007, the European Commission's Consumer Affairs Directorate released the Green Paper "on the Review of the Consumer Acquis," a document inviting comment on specific aspects of current consumer protection regulations and how they might be improved.

After over three hundred responses (apparently a high number) from stakeholders ranging from the business sector to consumer organizations and public authorities at various levels, the Commission has released a proposal that has many in the software industry in a bit of a sweat.

The Internet is the place to be, where ever you are. But if you happen to be in Europe, then the Web really is a great place to advertise.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe (IAB Europe) released the findings of its annual advertising expenditure survey for 2007. Considered to be THE guide to the size and value of the European online advertising industry, its results showed that online advertising continues to grow, grow, grow, with “an average growth rate of 40% year-on-year.”

David Nuescheler of Day, developers of the once and future JCR standard, will be conducting a session on AJAX and JCR at JavaPolis ‘07.

The session will occur this Wednesday at the MetroPolis Business Center in Antwerp — the haven of diamond aficionados and, this week only, the site at which people will shape the future of AJAX.

In particular, Nuescheler will be discussing “repository backed AJAX” (dubbed r-JAX for short).

UK-based Jadu is positioning its latest release, Jadu Blogs for Jadu 1.7 CMS, as something, if not bigger than blog platforms like WordPress and Movable Type, then in a league all its own. A league we foolishly didn’t even consider. A league in which blogging is a reason, in and of itself, to start thinking CMS.

To leave no room for imagination, Jadu itself calls its Blogs offering “Blog Content Management.” Well, that’s something we can run away with.

Marketing and tech firm FourMangos is collaborating with Sitecore, a .NET Web CMS provider, to build a web content management solution that appeals to both marketers and devs.

According to President and CEO Neil Fennessey of FourMangos, “This application, coupled with FourMangos’ innovative creative and web strategy, lets us offer our clients a more flexible architecture which allows them to be more resilient to changing strategies and content requirements.”

FourMangos typically provides integrated marketing, enterprise solutions and strategy offerings for organizations worldwide. It is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (A far cry from Sitecore, which is in Copenhagen.)

Aside from news of the partnership, there’s no word yet on what the creative and tech-oriented enterprise CMS solution will be. But nothing brings a migraine on like the mental image of creatives and techies fighting over the same toy — something we addressed after a SEO session at ad:tech Chicago.

Collaboration between the pair will only grow more necessary in the next couple of years, so here’s to hoping the solution’s an elegant one.

Plus, FourMangos and Sitecore are no strangers to such unlikely harmonies. They’ve worked together on a few projects previously. And last summer, Sitecore flirted with rich web to help improve corporate intranet technologies.

For “legit” print journalists, the day of reckoning may be approaching more quickly than any of us would like. A survey by web CMS vendor Polopoly reports that, according to European newspaper execs, 40 percent of published content will be user generated.

In the next three years.

Because of this, blogs and other “new media” commodities will become increasingly critical to the news-making populace. And with this trend, personalized online advertising opportunities are also expected to improve.

No one’s safe from the M&A bug. UK firm Autonomy has just agreed to purchase Belfast-based Meridio for US$ 40.8 million.

Meridio is a global provider of enterprise document and records management software. Earlier this month, it updated its proprietary offering for easier integration with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) and MS Exchange.

Not a bad relationship for its new parent company to inherit.