Tangle.com – Social Network Sneek Peek… or Not.
A few months ago we covered how GodTube.com is evolving into a “full blown” social network and is rebranding their entire name to Tangle.com.
It looks like it’s moving forward quite nicely… kinda.
I checked last night and I was instantly stopped by a username and password request.
Not to be stopped, I googled it and saw that content had actually been loaded and the page was pulling data [see image].
Interesting.
I was able to view some of the content, videos, and certainly read their bottom info blurb about the “who,” “what,” and “why”. I made a few notes, drafted a post, and then went to bed thinking that it was pretty much futile to “guess” a username and password.
I woke up this morning and voila. Tangle.com no longer had their security check.
But I’m not sure it’ll stay that way…
I’m guessing that their “live-testing” and “live developing” their site because of their .php calls and scripting. So I took a few screen caps and quickly dug in.
Apparently, Tangle.com is GodTube.com but with a cool green logo and more “flash-required” functionality. You can login with your GodTube account name and the “experience,” as a whole, is almost identical.
Google is going to have a field day when they start indexing and start finding duplicate content.
That won’t be good for SEO-business.
In addition, there are a number of broken links and obviously incomplete areas, especially where advertising is concerned.
Take a look at some of the screen grabs for proof.
This is either a major oversight or someone’s in trouble for live-firing an unfinished product.
In either case, the site doesn’t necessarily impress.
They are pulling in a lot of content via iFrames and the only major difference, from where I sit, is the styling.
As I said before, they have nearly identical user experiences and are pulling in a lot of their old content. Some still needs to be redesigned and rebranded. There are also a number of styling/.css issues too.
But, from a business perspective I see where they’re headed. The new site obviously separates the individual experience with featured areas for organizations, ministries, bands, and other “sitelet” type engagements.
This enables the site to “sell” these prime real estate spots because of their ability to segregate content, which as a result helps them make even more money off their property.
And that makes sense, right? Because at the end of the day, something’s gotta keep the lights on.
So, all in all, I’m not exactly sure what is going on over there. I have no idea if Tangle.com is going to fully replace GodTube.com or what. I think that is what they should, and almost have to do, but I’ve been wrong before.
If anything, they’ll definitely want to “clean it up” and make sure that they get things working. As you can see, they’ve got a lot of work ahead of them. I do wish them the very best…!
What are your thoughts?
Buzz it!
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30 Responses to “Tangle.com – Social Network Sneek Peek… or Not.”
GodTube to change name and relaunch | free Christian resources
[...] is the video that the YouTube site released. CrunchChurch have posted an article suggesting the name will be tangle.com, however you can’t yet log [...]
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that's lame,my kids and their friends go on there. thanks for the info.
I'm tired of Christian social networks. Christians are called to engage people for Christ..not be their own networks.
Brian, you are right to say that Christians are called to engage people for Christ. But to call people to anything deeper than fire insurance, Christians must model community. Within the 21st century, social networks are redefining how we meet, greet, and continue building relationships. The same can be true for Christian social networks as well.
That being said, Christians should be networking with purpose not only to fellowship but to engage in cooperative ministry. This is something I don't see advertised from tangle.com, godrev.com, or for that matter mychurch.org, and thus I can understand your frustration.
With all of these tools and ideas at our disposal, how do you think we should be should be engaging our world better as a multi-church, multi-denominational community?
I see what you are saying. I didn't mean to sound like I hate the idea of social networks in general. I love the idea of connecting, and fellowship online. I just feel like sometimes we use it as a excuse not to do hands on ministry and stuff. Like people say my ministry is the online..my website. my blog whatever..and then they don't ever go and do anything for the Kingdom in their own cities.
cool bro. love the conversation. thanks for keeping it real…!
Brian, I am sorry I apparently came across harshly, as that was not my intent. May I throw out an alternative? Is it possible that its not a matter of online versus offline to the exclusion of the other, as much as turning online relationships into something more solid in the "real world."
Internet evangelism groups have been working on this for several years, by building cooperative relationships with churches in that particular area where the contact was made to follow up in person. Its being done in various places around the world.
Now that being said, Christian bloggers and social network founders have not kept pace, and thus your concerns while perhaps short-sighted are well founded. You might want to check out http://issacharnetwork.org,where we are trying to resource real people, in real churches, for real ministry.
all i gotta say is that i love the conversation… thanks daniel for keeping it real.
John, between godrev.com and now tangle.com, I think you have found the latest two attempts to create Christian portals (homepages) on the web. While hokey perhaps, you might check out tangle.com/bible and tangle.com/pray for additional components of their network beyond a social networking site built around video uploads.
I can't imagine the grief GodTube must get form the Internet community at large. I run Teens Against Porn (http://teensagainstporn.com)and we get trolled heavily in a routine basis. Many of the sites that launch "raids" against us also have threads/conversations about GodTube.
And I'm not talking about good conversations, either. I feel for them.
peace|dewde
lots. but, it's because they are change-agents.
Looks like Tangle has been closed off from our prying eyes for now. I like the concept behind Christian social networking so that we can model Christian community to others. It will be interesting to see if Tangle or some other social network will be able to accomplish this.
yeah, they closed down shop. i wonder if this had anything to do with it… probably not.
You reviewed an unfinished product…..how LAME!!!!!
Lamer than having the production URL pointing to an unfinished product on the live production server?
Debatable.
peace|dewde
hehe. dewde dropping it.
almost as lame as your comment.
A Christian community (website) is very Biblical. Just read Acts 2. Likewise, read the prayer of Jesus in John 17:20-23. This idea for Godtube.com/Tangle.com is very Biblical.
I'm not arguing whether it's “biblical” or not. i'm all for it, actually. i'm also for being as effective as possible with our time, resources, and talents. they're doing a fine job.
thanks for dropping by!
Hey! since you all are talking about how the Church can use social networking sites to not only fellowship, but engage in ministry with the world, check out United Live (Hillsong Australia's Youth/Young Adult ministry) 's outreach movement called "the i-heart revolution". They are using "cause" applications and requests through facebook, and I guess something similiar through myspace, to promote awareness of social injustice and support causes such as WorldVision, Compassion, and many others. I just thought it was really cool how they were able to use all these things to promote the mission, which is all about the intersection between worship and justice. Check it out at http://www.i-heart.org. At the bottom it sends you to either thier facebook or myspace. Also look up hillsong United.
THANKS! I love Hillsong… they are awesome!
Seriously, I highly doubt that this is anything other than another puddle where christians will huddle together and give each other back rubs. Good name change but the seeming flaw is that as a company Godtube has done nothing to effect culture or to engage it. It was a silly rip off that got wings because most christians are worried about using youtube.
IMHO if Godtube wants to do something revolutionary they should start a social network for social networks.
ooooooooooooh. social network of social networks… interesting…!
ooooooooooooh. social network of social networks… interesting…!
Wow, I could not disagree more. Of course I am sure some non-Christians may arrive and then leave with a more favorable opinion of Christians. But the site is a joke to a significant population of Internet users. The very ones Christians would consider the "most lost". The ones they would consider the furthest from God. I would wager that that group gets either totally stigmatized and driven further away from Christianity by a site like GodTube, or they remain the same.
No, GodTube is not a change agent as I understand the term. It does little to assist in changing someone's beliefs. What they do is strengthen an existing belief system. Christians show up, watch some inspirational videos or worship bands, then they leave feeling more connected to God, but not changed. They move vertically, not laterally.
I'm not saying this is good or bad. Or it should be one way over another. I'm saying this is what it is.
peace|dewde
yo. word to your mother.
Godtube aka Tangle is like a chinese restaurant owned and managed by African Pigmys. What do Pigmys know about Chinese food? Nothing!
What do a group of people who come from a Dating website mentality know about a christian social network? Its well known that the original founders were pretty much bought out by a group who raised some $29m but then only received less than $20 but used about half to buy out the original founders. They then used the "christian" angle to raise money with wealthy christians in the Dallas/Ft Worth area. Only to turn it into a online dating, youtube wanna be website.
Then spends millions to buy tangle.com and web applications. makes me think of the stupid spending that went on in the dot com bubble.
Most of the existing founders are from a network called ffn.com or the finder.com series of online dating. (friendfinder, jewishfriendfinder, seniorfriendfinder, bigchurch, etc…)
In today's world they are going to find out that it takes more than a name and pretty colors to run a successful social network.
What more can you expect from a company that uses a hacked version of Clip-Share which they call their "custom framework" and a Director of Tech whose basically a Linux Hack who thinks he a programmer.
I love the idea of a Christian Social Network but when a bunch of people that run a dating website think they should get into the online I wanna be Youtube, wait no… I wanna be Facebook/Youtube and we're so cool because we use jquery everywhere gets into the Christian social network space, maybe its time to pack it in.
I want real people with a mission to drive this and hire some true technologists who can bring true web innovation that makes other Christians proud to be online in a family friendly website group. Be nice if they spent the money on true technology improvements vs a website skin redesign. I wonder how many high paid morons were in unending meetings for months deciding on a new name and look vs providing new functionality and useful tools for their loyal followers
But for now its a joke of a dating website with no identity with the ability to upload videos ala Clip-Share.
Osofony…
man, you've got an interesting perspective…! and obviously have done your homework. Thanks for sharing your thoughts here.
i hope that, despite their intentions, it manages to do some good in this world… that's all we can ask sometimes, right?
@osofony
wow you really know your stuff. I am glad I am not the only one who knows what is going on over there. I have been running a Christian Media Sharing site for a few years not myself. TheJesusTV.com. It is much smaller than Tangle.com from a membership standpoint, but it is growing nicely and has a great community.
TheJesusTV.com is great. I also like RejoiceTube.com
Tangle frequently has issues on the site with things out of place and not working. It is really quite poorly designed with videos stopping many times midway through and not capable of restarting without refreshing and watching ANOTHER commercial. Thanks for your site Jereme, it and RejoiceTube.com are my two favorite Christian social networking sites.
osofony,
Amazing information about Tangle. Good call on the hacked Clipshare script they are running. One of the most informed posts I have ever seen on Tangle.