The main idea of this review is for me to get a handle on the products that are out there, that way, I can feel reasonably confident when I talk to clients about the range of solutions that are possible.
Surprisingly even though there a products like Sandvox and iWeb popping up they are only the next step in a trend. When I started reviewing web site development software for Internet AU back in 1995 through '97 I started with power text editors that had some neat expansion scripts to wrap HTML tags around your text.
Then within the space of a single year I reviewed PageMill, GoLive and Dreamweaver each representing a step up. Of course people out grew these as well, PageMill was killed off when GoLive was acquired and it looks like GoLive is going the same way now that Adobe has finally acquired Macromedia's Dreamweaver. From my point of view I stopped using GoLive when it became bloated and slow in comparison to Dreamweaver - unless my memory is playing tricks this was about the time Adobe took charge. Lets hope they don't do the same to Dreamweaver and Contribute.
In 2001/2 I was recommending to clients that they invest in products like Contribute so they could take charge of keeping specific portions of their websites fresh. Of course, I'm not talking about our larger clients like HSBC (large Java site) or Greater Union (which was WebObjects) - it was clients like MoveCorp and Jones The Grocer (sadly defunct now).
Surprisingly I've just noticed that MoveCorp is still using our old design - and Jones The Grocer seems to have been resurrected after closing shop on us and declaring bankruptcy. Amazing JTG has kept the same branding but apparently turned itself into a franchise - sorry more digression.
Back on track - the interesting thing about Contribute was that while a lot of our clients signed up for conversion of their web-sites to Contribute we ended up with more work. For example - our clients started putting up little news articles trying to keep the site fresh but then after a month or so they would ring up and ask us to create a new page template because they wanted to add a new project article or client story.
When it came down to it though - we ended up manufacturing the content for them. Our biggest billing codes where for writing articles, client profiles, photography and going out to client sites for editorial meetings. The actual percentage billed for adding the new content to the websites was usually less than 5% in a given month. So, hence my interest in the likes of Sandvox.
