Quickly — think of an industry that is still rooted in Adobe’s Flash technology?

Yes, a technology that has been on a downslide since the advent of smartphones; a technology that is nearing further disability from major browsers for its security vulnerabilities; and a technology that now exists in pseudonym (see “Adobe Animate”) because its creator so desperately wants to move on.

There are a few answers that come to mind, like computer gaming and video streaming, both of which are realizing the need to wriggle out of Flash’s development grips and find their way toward a more-reliable future. After all, Chrome and Firefox unexpectedly blocked Flash technology a little less than a year ago today. The block, though temporary, sent a grim message across the web to Flash developers: move on or risk having nothing.

The industry that Dirxion is concerned with, of course, is digital publishing. This industry is stubborn and resilient in its use of Flash, even though Adobe wants more to be recognized for its own transition to HTML5. Still today, nearly 10 years since the release of Apple’s first iPhone, most digital publishing kits are brought to you by Flash.

Actually, let me paraphrase the question — what industries sell online advertising for their websites?

It’s not a trick question. Too many to even count.

Each of these industries has been touched by Adobe Flash. Let that passive voice sink in for a moment. Anyone who has posted online advertising in the past five years has likely been relying heavily on Flash. It is that pervasive.

But now, nearly a year has passed since the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) laid out an overhaul to its display creative guidelines that make HTML5 the new standard in interactive marketing. The efforts further encourage agencies to move away from Adobe’s Flash, which for years has been the unofficial standard. It was a hugely-important-but-unsurprising move by IAB. It really marked the end of Adobe Flash, and here’s why.

Google is no longer accepting Flash-based ads on Jan. 2, 2017. Go ahead and put that on your calendar as the execution date for Flash. In the U.S., Chrome is leading the web browser marketshare and trending further upward. It would come as no surprise if the other major browsers followed suit. There is little doubt that IAB’s guidelines precipitated such a plan.

Google said the move will “enhance the browsing experience for more people on more devices.” It will also force a bevy of online advertisers to shape up before next year. Changes will come even sooner, with June 30, 2016, being a prominent date on which ads built in Flash can no longer be uploaded into AdWords and DoubleClick Digital Marketing. If things aren’t clear enough, Google deliberately points out that “it’s important to update your display ads to HTML5 before these dates.”

Some loyalty to Flash is easy to understand: since its invention, Flash has been the lifeblood to industries like digital publishing. Dirxion, along with everybody else providing such services, was at one point deeply entrenched in Flash.

But IAB, Google and a whole wide world of HTML5 developers wants to show us that Adobe Flash is the past, HTML5 is the future and too many of us are stuck in a messy in-between. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like there is an option, and it is mobile-or-bust in a smartphone-entranced society. HTML5 will eventually prevail.

How do you ensure your customers all over the world have access to your multi-language catalogs? Do you offer separate websites or multiple languages in one central location? No matter the scenario, we are here to help with the best resolution to your needs.

Keeping the user within the publication interface with a toggle between catalogs of different nationalities is considered a best practice. Industrial metalworking manufacturer, Kennametal, is a prime example. 14 Languages. One url. Canadian industrial tools supplier Acklands Grainger has a great BtoB catalog interface with the drop down toggle – choose between English or French. Once again, staying in the interface as the user toggles.

If separate URL’s are more desirable, consider YP eDirectories. They needed an option for two languages, French and English, to better serve customers in French or English speaking provinces. Instead of using one landing page with a multi-lingual drop down, they chose to use two different links/landing pages and split their directories using that technique.

A third option was used by KohlerPeople where we created a landing page with their six languages under each cover. It works well because the  user knows which language they want and. they can easily select it, go into the publication.

These are just some of the ways we have helped our customers expand the reach of their multilingual publications.

We can’t really call this a year in review, because the projects we do for our customers have an ongoing, long-term value, and to classify them as in the past, doesn’t do the work justice. That said, we created some great new functionality and added elements to our products that met both specific customer needs and served users as a whole.  We get really excited when talking about them, but listing all those items here in one place might be a bit overwhelming. Maybe, it’s better to classify how we helped and continue to serve a few customer types.

Let’s start with our retailers that produce a high quality print catalog. Our retailers saw increased page views and product clicks by bringing more elements of their existing e-commerce sites directly into the digital catalog. We make a point to be as tightly integrated with our customers sites as possible.

Our B-to-B catalog customers have placed a large emphasis on usage across all user groups. Special tools have been taken advantage of by sales teams to give them a selling advantage when using the catalog. New ways to feature their videos and foreign language catalogs were also introduced.

Dirxion is always on the lookout for new trends on how to engage users, so we enhanced the e-Edition newspaper archive experience and rolled out unique ways for our local search platform customers to generate great local content. Publishers taking advantage of these tools and integrating their digital directories have seen their visitors spending more time on the site and an overall increase in traffic.

If you didn’t get started with Dirxion in 2015, this year presents a great opportunity to take advantage of what we’ve done in the past and the exciting new projects we are working on for this year.

Hanukkah has begun and we are just a few weeks away from the big Christmas Day! Don’t run around this year trying to find last minute gifts. The last day for ordering online is quickly approaching. If you have already purchased some unique or top toys, show your kids the education section in our Out-of-this-World Gift Guide for Kids! They can bookmark their favorites and even add notes. When they aren’t looking you quickly access their chosen ideas. You have control over which section they can choose from and they drop you hints with bookmarks. It’s a win-win!

Roll Tide!

Alabama’s student newspaper just came out with an e-Edition! It’s published four times a week during Spring and Fall terms. This is the first newspaper that’s requested a bookshelf and it looks great.

The first mobile software update that allows content blocking is here. For the first time, the new iOS 9 update will allow users to install apps that block trackers, advertisements and other unwanted content. For the user this is great, as the most noticeable change will be that their web pages load faster. Load times using the Crystal app were remarkably faster. The Next Web did side by side comparisons of pages loading, one without Crystal and one with. The results were pretty telling. Check it out.

According to tapinfluence “Ad blockers will cost publishers nearly $22 billion in revenue this year”. That’s a staggering number. If you rely on online advertising gains, now is the time to seek other options. We know how important advertising is to online publications and this loss could potentially be made up through a digital publication app. In general, a digital publication application improves the overall value to print advertisers, giving them more reach.

With the new ad blocking apps, customers aren’t quite sure how to get their ads seen on mobile devices. This can be done by purchasing physical ad space in the publication and converting the paper product to digital solution! The advertisers ad will reside in the digital publication on a page – no blocking! Leaving a full page space for the advertiser will ensure that the ad will be seen. We can add links redirecting to their website and/or an email address.

Consumers go online to read the digital publication and chat with friends, so the ads created should drive brand awareness and peak a user’s interest. Banner ads can be highly effective but they need to be created properly. Google Marketing just wrote a great article about creative and effective banner ads. The three principles they point out are to be compelling, concise and clear. They go into a lot more detail, so I suggest visiting Think With Google for more information.

Once customers are informed and headed in the right direction with advertising it’s time to give us a call. Our digital publication consultants can help guide you through the process and offer some pretty amazing features to make your digital product stand out from the rest.

Yesterday was officially the last day for Google Catalogs. Are you prepared with a new solution or did your digital catalog disappear? If the latter of the two happened, we’re here to provide a fresh start with Dirxion Compass. Our Compass product is an HTML5 digital publication experience creating digital catalogs, directories, newspapers, magazines, flyers and travel guides. Compass is more than just a PDF, it acts as an interactive extension of your brand. Change your users experience into something completely different and unique.

Someone from our friendly sales team would love to hear your needs and provide a free demo. If you have any questions please contact our sales team at 888.391.0202 or email us at sales@dirxion.com.

Recently, Mozilla released a new update with Adobe Flash disabled, by default. Flash had two unpatched hacking vulnerabilities. Abode rushed out an update and Mozilla re-enabled it, however, you get a warning message before it plays. Facebook’s CSO is calling for the end of Flash, while Google announced they would block auto-playing Flash elements with the new stable Chrome release. http://bit.ly/1HRewN4

How does this reflect on your digital publication? If your publication is vintage and still using Flash elements, it’s time for a change! We’re ahead of the game and have been for some time, creating digital publications in HTML5. HTML has been around for over 20 years, it allows us to embed video clips and other multimedia tools. One of the main benefits is that HTML5 does not require a plugin, it can run on any computer or mobile device. Don’t be limited with the use of Flash.

Take your digital publication to the next level and give users a full experience. Call our friendly sales team at 888.391.0202 or email at sales@dirxion.com and they can help get you started.

We’re celebrating Earth Day, this marks the 45th year it’s been nationally recognized. In 1996, Dirxion advocated to help make the planet a little greener. We knew print was too important to disappear, but if we could help companies eliminate some of their print by offering a digital product, our green mark would get a little bigger. In the past year, we’ve digitized close to a million pages, I’d say that is a lot of trees. And that is just in one year, imagine what we’ve done in the past 19 years!

We’re still on the green track, every year we try to add something new. From adding small green touches to our website (www.dirxion.com) to getting rid of the vending machine and have a self serve vending area. We also share books in our community library, eliminate screen savers, recycle, and have plants everywhere! What green changes will you make this week?

Calling Dirxion should be one of them! Go green today and show mother nature some love!

Facebook is the most popular social media site with 1.35 billion active users! Your business is most likely on Facebook, where is your digital publication in the social media landscape? Your social media efforts go into building a bigger following, a bigger audience on Facebook, so why not put your publication on the main social stage?

By placing your digital catalog in a Facebook application, users can stay engaged while on a familiar platform, never leaving your unique social brand. A Facebook app is a great option that is simple yet effective. When you update your digital catalog on Facebook, you could write a quick status update, allowing users to go check it out in real time.

Adding your catalog to Facebook gives you an opportunity to drive more fans to your products on your e-commerce site. Since the app works just like our digital catalog interface, linking and adding detail windows is a cinch.

It’s time to get social. Let us help.