The creative software developer begins a company blog amid questions over its merger.Adobe joined the blogosphere today with the launch of its
official company Web log.
The main blog incorporates entries from eight employees, most of whom are involved in product management or software development.
Adobe Systems Inc. management said that blogging on blogs.adobe.com is open to all employees.
"Blogs are an increasingly important form of communication," said Tom Malloy, senior vice president and chief software architect for Adobe. "We hope the blogs will be a good source of information on Adobe products, programs and technologies, as well as providing an open forum for discussion on the industry as a whole."
So far, the blog posts and comments have been minimal.
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"Indeed, this is just the beginning of blogs.adobe.com," Gavin MacKenzie wrote in his first post. "And it is therefore not surprising that we have only a few blogs with about as many entries. But, I personally favour this approach rather than keeping blogs.adobe.com under wraps and attempting to prime it with content."
By unveiling its blog, Adobe joins the ranks of other corporate bloggers, such as soon-to-be-acquired Macromedia Inc., software giant Microsoft Corp. and network computing company Sun Microsystems Inc. Some companies, such as "big four" accounting firm Deloitte & Touche of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, have recently stated that they see more risk than reward in allowing employees to blog under the company logo.
Experts see Adobe's decision to blog as part of a larger corporate strategy to communicate better with customers. Paul Chaney, a blog analyst and president of Radiant Marketing Group in Tupelo, Miss., said Adobe's blog may allow it to avoid or temper public relations problems.
MSN gets into the paid blogging game. Click here to read more.
"For example, Dell played deaf and dumb to the across-the-fence [blog] conversation [about their poor customer support] and it hurt them," Chaney said. He suggested that Dell could have avoided or countered the negative press by starting a blog.
Adobe will have ample opportunity to judge the risks and rewards of participating in the blogosphere soon. Its merger with Macromedia is drawing near, and customers from both companies are bound to be interested—and commenting.
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