Over the weekend I spoke to Martin Wells, the founder and CEO of a startup from Sydney, Australia called Tangler. I had a look at the application they have been developing for the last 18 months now which is an instant messaging and communication app that is based around a concept they call ‘instant grouping’.
Instant grouping means that any number of people can take part in conversations around topics of interest they find on the web or in other applications. The application allows users to subscribe to a group – which can then be linked to any number of blogs, websites, music files (in iTunes or other apps), a point on a map or anything else. The conversations are persistent so you don’t need to be there when other people are and the desktop application will notify you when something new happens in a group.
This alleviates the problem some have seen at the moment with instant messaging applications tied to blogs by making each group an actual destination where users can make comments and have conversations. Tangler does a good job of uniting people around a common interest and letting them take part in conversations. This is where instant messaging has been heading for a while now, but Tangler looks to have gotten it right.
The guys have been spending some time in the valley recently while they prepare the company and the product for a public launch. Tangler has been privately funded to date but Martin has indicated they have investment interest from the USA at the moment which they are considering.
Tangler are planning to open up the private beta in 2 months – in the interim you can register your interest in their product on their website. I am eagerly awaiting the launch since I have seen many attempts at trying to make communication around a topic or website on the web easier and it seems that these guys are approaching it the right way and doing it well.
Comments
Nik, I might be missing something, but I think they are solving a problem that doesnt exist.
1. You can chat in groups today.
2. You can “unite people around a common interest and let them take part in conversations” today
3. There are all kinds of shared working apps available
What am I missing?
Srinivasan I should have further emphasised that these chat groups are attached to web pages, blogs, a blog post, a point on a map, a particular music file in iTunes - not that it is just chat. The tangler conversations appear when you are viewing a particular web resource (or watching, or listening to)
Good to see more Aussies getting into the web application arena.
I am always troubled when I hear that someone has been working on something for 18 months prior to releasing a product. Whatever happened to the old IT project mantra - 6 months or bust? ie, if you cant complete it in less than 6 months the technology is probably obsolete.
But I guess the real thing here is that this sounds very much like a competitor to 3Bubbles and Userplane - should be an interesting fight for the heart of the bloggers live voice…
this is nice, but wouldn’t ‘untangler’ made more sense?
Isn’t this yet another pointless ‘live’ chat mechanism, like 3bubbles?
Even a busy blog like techcrunch has insufficient interested users to go and chat live. The comments system works very well - a post is not really a live event with everyone queueing up to give feedback at once.
Re the comment on time to market - well, it doesn’t matter if no one is in the market. But there are countless instant messagers out there, and no one really wants to use yet another one. Unless it truly is a killer.
Michael…. Multiply is currently doing this now. Real-time but persistent conversations tied to blog posts, photo albums, etc.. Group support as well.
Microsoft already has developed this long ago. This will never have the same level of functionality. Just another useless web app like meeto. I mean it really serves no purpose unless ur in a college dorm and like to play with cool things. Enterprise or corporate level companys will never use this.
“Even a busy blog like techcrunch has insufficient interested users to go and chat live”
Yes, but what if 100 blogs have a post about a similar topic all linking to ONE group chatting about that topic? Not sure if this app will do this, but it sounds like this is the way to go.
I rather would like to see at Teachcrunch already working sites. Or at least web sites in their betas. Currently tangler is simply one page ad, nothing more!
Good write up Nik! Thanks for filling in for Mike.
Tangler sounds great! That wsa a great article. Can’t wait to see the beta version!!!
I can imagine all the topics, chat and other stuff on David Hasselhoff. The worlds most famous actor and *ugh* horrible singer.
That alone should make the product viable
Like Blaze, I am happy to see some Australian web applications starting up. I love the fact that the chat is linked to a specific web-site, blog etc. Does that mean that when I visit a particular site (e.g., techcrunch), I could immediately get roped into a chat with other like-minded people?
If this is the case, this has some serious networking opportunities. That is, set up a site (networker) with professional sections and send out the invites. Crack open a bottle of wine next to the computer, collect a few electronic business cards and network away!!
I am interested to test it out when it goes live.
And yes - I too am happy to see further Australian entrepreneurship.
It’s hard to get excited about or comment on this without trying it out but, I can say that being able to annotate Web pages is not a new concept. Nor is subscribing to specific tags or even tags associated with a trusted group of folks. Unless they’ve got a particularly slick, easy to use package for all those features…I don’t understand what all the fuss is about.
For god’s sake, how can any one of you have a serious discussion about a product that neither of you have seen? how can you stand to read those endless reports on companies in stealth mode, with single page website and large, edge-rounded text boxes for email entry? what’s the next step? evaluate the podcast of a seed of an idea in the mind of an entrepreneur, recorded when he sang it in his bathroom? I mean, come on!
Hey man, what have you got against rounded-edge text boxes!
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