GodTube.com has been billed the Christian alternative to YouTube. Did Christianity need an alternative? Does GodTube get it right?
GodTube vs YouTube Site Design
The site design of GodTube is nice. It’s similar in style to YouTube, but has a few notable differences. One difference is that YouTube is always clean, favoring a white background with few to no ads. At the time of writing, GodTube has a MySpace type advertisement in which the plain background has been replaced by an advertisement for WOW Hits 2009.
GodTube has a widget on the front page that shows the avatars of online users. It is an attempt at bringing the social side of the social network video site to the forefront. YouTube has no such item on its front page, however it does have a section to show friend activity.
Both sites have featured and promoted videos prominently displayed on the front page of the site, but only GodTube has a scrolling series of video names at the top to entice users to view them. Finally, GodTube has more advertisements and a statement about the vision behind the site. Now, let’s get into the Good and Bad about the site.
The Good
The site search is as simple and effective as any I’ve used. That’s not to say that you’ll immediately find the video you’re looking for, but how often is the first video on YouTube the one you’re trying to find? Video quality is on par with YouTube, but not as good as Vimeo. Some videos obviously look better than others, but that depends more on the original file than the site compressison.
Video content is varied. It’s all “family friendly” whether it’s based on God, a video of a kid parking a bigwheel by doing a complete 180 degree skid, or a Christian music video. Some videos hit on walking more closely with Christ, while others espouse differences in denominations. One thing you will not find, however, are videos with cursing in them or in the title, after all, that’s one of the reasons the site was founded.
Up top you’ll find links to a prayer wall and a virtual Bible. These are pretty neat features. The virtual bible has videos related to the book you are reading underneath, and the prayer wall is a place where people can askothers for prayer. It’s a nice touch, and unique to GodTube.
The Bad
GodTube continues some Christians’ attempts to seclude into a bubble. Other items that are found doing a quick search are MyChurch instead of MySpace and Conservapedia instead of Wikipedia. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Christianity should not be in a bubble. I believe sites like this just perpetuate an image that Christians are so scared of the world that they feel they have to hunker down and separate. It’s not a way to show love to the world.
If Christians want to be effective in ministry then they have to go to the places where hurting people are. You are not going to get someone opposed to Christianity to regularly visit GodTube. As a matter of fact, you aren’t going to get many Christians to regularly visit GodTube. As I said yesterday, YouTube has name recognition. Mention GodTube, and you’ll get either a confused look, rolled eyes, or the least likely scenario, someone who is extremely excited about it.
From a technical standpoint, I’ve found that the embed code does not work as well. I run the website for the student ministry at my church. Each week I place a video of the week on the site. I’ve placed videos from YouTube and Vimeo with no problems, but when I tried to embed video from GodTube, it did not work. If they ever want their site to gain reach, then embedding should be flawless.
The Bottom Line
The video site itself is apt. It’s a nice place to search if you are looking for a niche video, but its reach is very limited. GodTube is another addition in a sea of websites out there showing videos. They aren’t doing it any better or worse than the competition, just differently. It’s a nice place to find videos of and about Christianity, and a safe place to send your children (at time of writing YouTube has curse words on their front page) and know they will not likely see anything that is objectionable. Ministries can use it to get video ideas for their sermons. It’s a decent site, and I’ve looked through it a couple of tmes, but I’m not convinced it’s really needed. I mean, what’s more effective, taking all your outreach videos and placing them on a site primarily visited by a small percentage of Christians, or placing them into the larger domain in a site visited by millions of those you are trying to reach?
Filed under: Web
