Joomla or Mambo?

Both Joomla and Mambo suffer somewhat from duplicated content due to different URL's serving the same content. This is due to the legacy from the early days of Mambo, with navigation being menu-driven. This *can* cause some penalties in some search engines. Meta data handling isn't great either, but is being worked on with Mambo.

The latest release of Joomla, 1.0.12, is causing major difficulties for some users, due to the same content items now being accessible by up to three different URL's. There is, however, a core hack to work around this.

Now, I am a Mambo developer, so some may think this is a strange thing to say, but SEO, while there is a lot that can be done with a standard Mambo or Joomla install, is NOT good with either CMS. There are a load of small things a site admin can do to make the most of what the cms' can deliver, but out-of-the-box, systems like Wordpress beat both Joomla and Mambo hands down. Reasonable human-friendly URL's can be achieved with extensions, but extensions add another level of potential security issues, need for updates, and a reliance on the 3rd party developer to keep up with the cms development. They all use htaccess and rewriting, so create performance hits.

I disagree with the comment that Mambo is an older version of Joomla. Mambo is the cms that Joomla forked from, but both have headed in very different directions since the split. I also want to correct a misunderstanding about the status of Mambo development. When Joomla started, all then-current Mambo developers left. The team that "created" Mambo had long gone, as is the way with open source projects - people leave, others come on board, so the ones that left were not the same devs who "created" Mambo. (The history is here if you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mambo_%28CMS%29#History_of_Mambo)

Since Mambo became independent from its corporate sponsor, several of the old-timers (ie. both community and developers) have returned to Mambo. This has brought a lot of energy back to the project and a lot of changes to the code. Many of those changes were ones that had been requested for years, but not acted on.

So, Mambo or Joomla? If extensions are important to you, Joomla currently has more to choose from. Many broke with Joomla 1.0.11 and have not been updated so you will need to check the forums for information on this. Mambo 4.6.x diverged greatly from the former 4.5.x branch and while some 3PD's have working extensions for it, there are a number that have not been updated.

With Mambo 4.6.x and Joomla 1.5, which is still in beta, a lot of the current extensions just don't work.

Mambo 4.7 is due out in the first quarter 2007 and will require changes to extensions. This version will be the start of Mambo becoming an accessible CMS that is XHTML 1.1 out of the box and meets all WCAG Priority 1 & 2 and most of priority 3. We are doing the frontend first, with 4.7 and the backend will become fully accessible later (its a massive job and we are not prepared to try to rush it).

The only way to know which one is likely to suit you best is to look at their roadmaps, spend some time on their forums, try out the demos, and then download and try them out for yourself. Each has its pros and cons. Neither is "better" than the other - enough divergence has now occurred that they are just different cms.

(Sorry for the long post).

 

I'm just beginning to use Joomla now, and I have to say that organizing the site as I need has proven a bit bulky. The results and concept are great, so I'll keep plugging away at it.

Any recommendations on a Joomla tutorial site?

 

Joomla! for sure.
FYI Joomla! just won the CMS of the year award. Drupal came in 2nd.

 

my vote goes to joomla too. it has better support and millions of extensions

 

@Elpie,
Google for some time now doesnt have issues with different url's leading to the same content.
In fact you can separate those url from ur sitemap or ;et Google do it in random for u

 

Joomla is fantastic. I've never had anything break, there are tons of mods and plugins, and a vibrant open source community is constantly contributing. Go with Joomla.

 

ive just got the SEF working, as with everything in joomla these things take time.. but its probably worth it.

 

I have seen many Joomla sites that get 10k+ uniques, in regards to the comment: "still waiting to see sites that are successful using Joomla". I don't have links handy, but they do exist.

 

I prefer Joomla a lot better. It's more enhanced than mambo. I'm just having trouble changing my template though!

 

Was stuck in the same boat couple years ago, decided to go for Joomla. Never looked back!