Every Tuesday, I will be featuring a web-tech (web 2.0) product or service. No mere random company will make an appearance for Web Tech Tuesday. Instead, I will be focusing on companies that develop products or services that I believe will be useful to people. If the product/service is great, then you will know about it. If the product/service is horrible, then you will know about it.

For the first edition of Web Tech Tuesday, I will be featuring Tangler. Tangler is an Australian based company which has been developing a communication system that allows its users to connect and communicate in a newer, faster, and more efficient than when compared to a traditional forum system like phpBB and vBulletin.

Traditional forums stick to a specific site or a topic, like the TechCrunch forums. Tangler changes this as everything is located on the main site, and almost any topic you want to discuss can quickly and easily be found. You can join a technology forum, beta testing forum, YouTube forum, and so many more. It is also worth noting that many web based startups are flocking to Tangler to discuss their products, and some of these startups use Tangler as their official forum system.

The first thing you notice when using Tangler for the first time is the interface. Web 2.0 has spurred along a new interface design methods, and they certainly do look beautiful. Tangler is no exception to this. It is really appealing to the eye when you see the site for the first time. Everything is where you would expect it to be. It would be nice to have more information about topics you participate in, and have it more easily accessible, but it is only a minute point that can be fixed in the future.

Navigation of the site is fairly simple. On the top of the site, there are always links displayed to access the essential parts of Tangler. You can quickly jump from all your groups, then to a particular forum, and then right into a private messaging session with a friend. The site has made significant strides to improve navigation, which was something I was critical of earlier on when using Tangler.

For interaction with other people, you can write on the forum using a simple format editor. All the controls you would expect are available to you. You can quickly post video, images, and other types of media directly into the forum. Everything is near real-time so if there are many people on a forum, it can act as a chat-room as well. It really is a great combination because you can sit back and read through the topics once a day, or you can be very active and communicate with people in almost real-time as well, so it will appeal to a variety of people.

The Tangler community is another great reason to visit the site. There are a great bunch of people there, and you get to interact with new people all over the world. There is always stuff to talk about, and even if you start a new group, people will join in on the conversation.

There are a few issues which I hope will be addressed in the future. Navigation between different forums is relatively easy, but the navigation could be improved furthermore to reduce the amount of mouse clicks it takes to get from one forum to another. It would be nice if there was a better way to switch between forums quickly, or maybe a way that you don't have to switch between multiple forums to reply to posts. I also would like to see a better format editor, as although it functions well, it is still a little buggy at times, and especially when dealing with posting URLs and posting pre-formatted content.

In the end, I think Tangler is a great project that has much promise. The question is, will the company be able to further evolve the product to appeal to more people in this blistering fast web-tech industry? The competition is heating up as Pibb seems to take a more unique approach to the forum/chat system, so it will be interesting to see if they spur on some competition. As it stands now, Tangler is one of the best web 2.0 communication projects out right now.