Oracle has removed social sharing and insights tool AddThis from its marketing cloud services. Customers who used AddThis widgets on their sites, enabling visitors to share content on social platforms, have seen the tools disappear with little warning.
A company notice provided by Oracle said that it had planned to terminate all AddThis services, effective May 31. The termination was “part of a periodic product portfolio review,” the statement read.
Oracle acquired AddThis in 2016.
Why we care. AddThis was a popular tool for upwards of 15 million publishers. Not only did it allow web visitors to easily share content on social, it also provided analytics to publishers via dashboard and weekly reports.
What’s next. Oracle provided the following steps for AddThis users in their notice:
- The user must immediately cease its use of AddThis services, and promptly remove all AddThis related code and technology from its websites;
- AddThis buttons may disappear from the user’s websites;
- The AddThis dashboard associated with the user’s registration for AddThis, and all support for AddThis services, will no longer be available;
- All features of AddThis configured to interoperate with user’s websites, any other Oracle services, or any third-party tools and plug-ins will no longer function.
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About the author
Chris Wood draws on over 15 years of reporting experience as a B2B editor and journalist. At DMN, he served as associate editor, offering original analysis on the evolving marketing tech landscape. He has interviewed leaders in tech and policy, from Canva CEO Melanie Perkins, to former Cisco CEO John Chambers, and Vivek Kundra, appointed by Barack Obama as the country’s first federal CIO. He is especially interested in how new technologies, including voice and blockchain, are disrupting the marketing world as we know it. In 2019, he moderated a panel on “innovation theater” at Fintech Inn, in Vilnius. In addition to his marketing-focused reporting in industry trades like Robotics Trends, Modern Brewery Age and AdNation News, Wood has also written for KIRKUS, and contributes fiction, criticism and poetry to several leading book blogs. He studied English at Fairfield University, and was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. He lives in New York.
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Oracle has announced the phase-out of the popular social sharing tool called AddThis. AddThis, which is used by websites that lack a dedicated web page for sharing content, has become an industry standard for easy sharing of articles, images, music, and other content.
The move comes as part of Oracle’s overall strategy to move more of its services onto cloud-based platforms. Oracle’s cloud-based offerings include a range of services already supported by AddThis, including content sharing, analytics, and targeting. Oracle is phasing out AddThis in favor of their own applications for content sharing and analytics.
AddThis’ technology allows users to quickly share webpages on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn with just one click. Users could also customize their sharing preferences, from being able to add additional social networks or add their own personalized tags. AddThis also allowed users to collect data from such sharing activities with the help of its analytics tool.
When announcing the changes, Oracle said that customers using AddThis should now use the Oracle Analytics product, which offers a comprehensive view into website behavior. The company also noted that the Oracle Cloud Platform had recently added new features and functionality, which would be available to users and customers as part of the move away from AddThis.
The move is not without its detractors, who argue that customers may find it difficult to make the switch to Oracle’s tool. However, Oracle maintains that their Analytics product can provide customers with the necessary data to make informed decisions about their online presence.
The phase-out of the AddThis technology comes in the wake of other changes as Oracle pushes forward with building up its cloud portfolio. Oracle is confident that the switch to their platform will provide customers with everything they need to remain competitive in this fast-paced digital world.
