What is the best possible platform for your business: Wordpress or Squarespace?

Though we know Wordpress as the most popular content management system, there still exist it competitors like SquareSpace. SquareSpace is a dedicated website builder that aims at the same audience. Both the platforms hold good reputation and support a lot of websites but it is a dilemma in choosing the better one out.

The Basics

Both SquareSpace and Wordpress serve a different purpose hence they cannot be compared directly. We can have a look at their basics.

Wordpress is a free service and an online open source tool that allows you to build websites. It facilitates you with number of themes and plugins so that you can customize your site on your own. No coding skills are required if you are just limited to adding content but you will need some coding brain if you want to take the benefits of its full potential by unlocking it.

SquareSpace is an all-in-one platform as it acts as a blogging platform, website builder and hosting service. With is Software-as-a-Service based CMS; it allows you to create an entire website without any coding knowledge. However, it doesn’t come as an open source so your use of theme and plugins is limited to those that are provided. It is also not a free service.

Ease of Use

From beginners to advanced-level users, Wordpress is suitable for anyone and everyone. It is reputed for its ease of use. The only things the beginners need to understand are the terms like posts, pages, categories and tags. Once they understand the basics, they must maintain a good grip over it.

SquareSpace doesn’t provide the same as Wordpress yet is I easy to use. It works on the basis of what-you-see-is-what-you-get. People are driven towards SquareSpace more than Wordpress due to its easy usability.

Design

Wordpress users possibly have unlimited number of themes to use. Some of the themes are free to use whereas better one range from $50 to $100 each. The amazing thing about the themes on Wordpress is you can customize them using custom code. So if you want to change your needs as your business proceeds, your website have the potential to grow with you.

SquareSpace on the other side provides limited options. It has only a few templates to choose from but each of them is very professional in appearance and is customizable. However, even by using CSS code, you are bound by limitations and hit the boundary line, especially if your business grows and your website represents that.

Features

When it comes to features, Wordpress takes away the cake as it is very flexible in terms of features and functionality of your site. This is because there are 41000 plugins available for you. You can modify these plugins the way you need even if you have very little knowledge of coding. It is not always the same as not all the plugins available are there to serve you as you want. So before you go for any plugin, just check if it is of good quality or not.

SquareSpace on other side provides just limited features and functionality as there are few plugins available for use. However, the plugins available are developed by SquareSpace’s own developers so there is no doubt in their quality.

Cost

When we talk about cost, Wordpress doesn’t charge anything as it is free of cost. But you will need to pay for the hosting account to run your site and also pay for the better themes and plugins. You may also come across a situation in which you will need to hire a developer to customize your site.

SquareSpace offers a 14 day trial period after which it chargers you. If you go for personal package, it will cost you $8 per month if you pay annually and $12 per month if you pay monthly. For this, you will get 20 pages, galleries and blogs with unlimited bandwidth and storage. If you go for business package, it will cost you $18 or $26 per month and provides you unlimited pages and gives you the permission to sell 25 products. The Basic commerce package costs $26 or $30 monthly with unlimited product selling. The Advanced Commerce package will $70 or $80 monthly that offers some advanced features.

Ecommerce

Wordpress becomes the clear winner when ecommerce is concerned. You can install a plugin that converts your website into a functioning site such as WooCommerce. It allows you to sell unlimited products and also integrate payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe and GoogleCheckout.

SquareSpace provides very limited options. You can use Stripe for payment during the initial time which limits your audience instantly. IF personal package is chosen, it allows you to sell only single product. If you want to sell more products you will have to go for the Business package. Commerce package allows you to sell over 25 products.

Support

Wordpress will provide no official tech support and no point of contact however it depends on your problem. But there are many video tutorials out there that provide large general support community accessible via forums.

The tech support that SquareSpace provides is just outstanding. It provides 24/7 tech support. It provides live chat options plus emails are answered within an hour. They will help you deal with problems and bugs but won’t be there to aid you with the small issues to your site.

Data Portability and Scalability

Wordpress is flexible when you want to transfer your data to different CMS. You can export data through various in-built tools and backup your theme, plugins and even the whole of database. Later, you may transfer it to another CMS and store it anywhere you want.

We already know that SquareSpace comes with limited functionality it is every time that you will be bound by the walls if your business outgrows what’s on offer. The export feature also faces some limitations like you have the permission to export contents in XML file but you cannot move all of your content.

Wordpress or SquareSpace?

Wordpress here is a clear winner if you expect full flexibility over appearance and functionality from your website. It is also thumbs up for Wordpress if you want the benefits of ecommerce functionality. In a nutshell, Wordpress provides you the potential to modify your site the way you want.

On the other side, SquareSpace allow you to create website even if you have no coding knowledge, no experience and do not want to hire any developer. It allows you to develop an elegant website and get it online with minimum bucks ad it also provides you a 24/7 tech support.

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Trends of ecommerce that are becoming signature of 2016

Hasn’t 2016 already crept in to rock ecommerce with all new rhythm? It is the perfect time for online merchants to meditate over the past success or failure and strategize the new rules of attraction: rules of being attractive to customers. With refreshingly new trends coming in, ecommerce owners must shape the revamped structure of their ecommerce business around the new-age users.

In 2016, there are certain unique trends that are shifting the gear of business, becoming the signature in relevant market. So let’s see what kind of trends 2016 is hiding in its ecommerce store.

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WhatsApp bumps up group member limit from 100 to 256; is it time for spam yet?

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The world’s most popular instant messaging app – WhatsApp – just got a minor update that many users would be happy about. WhatsApp has now updated its app to support more than 100 members within a group. The app now allows for up to 256 members to be added to a WhatsApp group. And while casual users will be happy, there are others who would be happy with this news as well.

Seems like WhatsApp is giving its users (or group admins) more reasons to stick around on its platform. While this is not a big deal for many (apart from the fact that group conversations will now get more meaningless), there is this other group of people that are currently using WhatsApp as a platform to run their business.

Users and admins are selling everything from outfits to accessories and even using the same for advertising down to carpooling groups and more. WhatsApp groups have grown in number and an additional 156 group members seems to make the deal even sweeter for such group admins.

But while group admins are running their business using WhatsApp, the increase in the group member limit could be a sign of times to come.

Facebook could be ramping up plans for WhatsApp since acquiring it. The social network earlier made public that it would cancel the fee but had plans to make money off it by allowing businesses and organisations to communicate with users.

So increasing the number of group members could be a first step just to test out the waters as to how operations would scale. Also 256 being an odd figure (why not 300?) indicates that WhatsApp could be testing out the feature with its available infrastructure; so yes this number could increase soon.

WhatsApp could be in a position to introduce even more members to a group for an additional cost since the messaging app is a lot more popular than others. It was just recently that we heard that WhatsApp crossed the 1 billion users milestone with 42 billion messages exchanged daily so this does not sound like a distant dream indeed. This would benefit those group admins who run their businesses using Whatsapp.

Oddly, many such admins could already be working with the current 100 group member limit by creating multiple groups (different groups for different areas or zones). Moreover, there are mods or hacks available for rooted Android devices that will give admins a group limit of up to 1000 members.

Since conversations in larger groups tend to get cluttered, meaningless and hard to keep a track off, organisations use Slack to segregate conversations by tags. We’re pretty sure that keeping a tab on the conversations with just 100 group members is a task (or a headache depending on whether you have been forced into or not) so the complexity of chatting up with 256 or even a thousand will not make much sense.

Still then this is something that WhatsApp could really tap into, like a feature to tag users in its conversations wherein tagging actually prompts a particular user with a notification. This could simply be adding an ‘@’ sign in the message followed by the user’s name something that Facebook already follows.

So much speculation surely hints that Facebook is indeed up to something with WhatsApp. But for now it is all about when these ideas go into play as WhatsApp’s user base keeps growing, but Facebook has yet to take it first step to make some money of its acquisition.

Originally Posted on - http://tech.firstpost.com

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Google Oracle lawsuit: Search giant paid Apple $1 billion to feature in iOS search bar

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The ongoing lawsuit where Oracle is suing Google for allegedly using unlicensed software in the Android OS, has revealed something big indeed. In a public transcript an Oracle lawyer has revealed that Google actually had a revenue sharing agreement with Apple and that the company apparently handed over a percentage of the same two years ago.

Shedding more light on the topic revealed that the search giant may have actually paid Apple a percentage of the revenue, which was generated by iOS users searching via Google on their devices. This was speculation from many years but nothing could be confirmed until now.

The report from Bloomberg confirms another topic of discussion but eventually proves that Apple does reap more than $1 billion just from Google search referrals, even though both companies have never talked about the same officially.

The other topic which was speculation until now, proves that Apple indeed benefits (in a big way) by allowing Google to basically do what it wants with the data generated from iOS search results.

According to the same Oracle lawyer, Annette Hurst, interviews had revealed that at one point in time, that revenue share was 34 percent. But for now it remains unclear whether this fixed margin is the share that Google holds back or pays to Apple.

And yes, this is turning out to be a bad day for Apple as well. This is because Apple CEO, Tim Cook was noted for his statements that went against selling search data in the past. Now that things between Apple and Google are opening up, Apple may have some damage control to look after indeed.

The epic legal battle between the tech titans over use of Oracle’s Java in Google’s Android operating system has been raging on for quite a while. In a recent update, Google announced that it would be replacing the use of Java application programming interfaces (APIs) in Android with OpenJDK – the open source version of Oracle’s Java Development Kit.

Originally Posted on - http://tech.firstpost.com

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Apple’s First iOS App Development Center In Europe Will Be Located In Italy

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Apple is opening an iOS App Development Center in Naples, Italy. The facility will be the first of its kind in Europe as the U.S. company explores way to nurture mobile app developers and talent of the future from the region.

The center is designed, as the name suggests, to be a place where aspiring app developers can receive training and mentorship to develop their skills and ability with Apple’s iOS software. It isn’t clear when the Naples-based hub will open, but Apple did say that it will be located at a partnership institution in the city. The company added that the program will be expanded to other countries worldwide in the future.

In case you’ve been living in cave for the past five years or so, mobile apps are big business — and iOS apps, in particular. Though the number of Google Play app downloads was double that of iOS last year, the Apple operating system generated 75 percent more revenue than its competitor, according to data release by App Annie this week. Indeed, Apple racked in more than $1.1 billion from iOS app purchases and in-app purchases during the recent New Year period alone.

Explaining its decision to open the Italy-based center, Apple said its mobile ecosystem has helped developers in Europe earn more than €10.2 billion while it estimates that, in Italy alone, over 75,000 jobs are linked to its App Store.

“Europe is home to some of the most creative developers in the world and we’re thrilled to be helping the next generation of entrepreneurs in Italy get the skills they need for success,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.

Originally Posted on - http://techcrunch.com

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Microsoft to pull the plug on IE 8,9 and 10 support next week

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Come January 12, 2016 only the most current version of Internet Explorer (IE) – i.e. Internet Explorer 11 will receive technical supports and security updates. IE 11 will continue to receive security updates, compatibility fixes and technical support on Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.

For users and enterprises, no security updates mean that vulnerabilities may be exploited by malware. Microsoft has issued instructions for its enterprise customers, SMB customers and home PC users on the website on how to upgrade. Citing the potential risks of using older versions of IE after the aforementioned date, Microsoft lists out businesses not being able to meet compliance requirements and lack of independent software vendor support. Of course, security can take the biggest hit.

Looking at the bigger picture, IE 11 is the last version of Microsoft’s old browser that is supported. The company seems to be making that transition to Edge — the browser on Windows 10.

Originally Posted on - http://tech.firstpost.com

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A NEW ERA OF COMMERCE INNOVATION

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Today we announced the general availability of our next generation open source digital commerce platform, Magento 2.0.  The new platform empowers brands, retailers, and businesses across B2C and B2B industries to quickly and cost-effectively deliver engaging omnichannel shopping experiences.

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