Philippine Faith-based Community Website on the Rise as Fave Christian Portal

Manila, Philippines - A Philippine religious Web site community portal is earning raves from this nation's vibrant Internet industry for bridging global members of a Christian group through online sharing of inspiring stories of faith and facilitating group interaction.

Fast-becoming a one-stop online venue for members of Church of God International, a Philippine-based Christian group led by Eliseo Soriano, its Presiding Minister, Kaanib.net was picked in November by the Philippines' Web Awards as the Best Community and Portal Web site and the People's Choice in the same category.

"Kaanib" means Church member in English.

The three year-old Pampanga-based Web site, which was relaunched last August 2005, now sports a fully-revamped design and look. The interactivity was enhanced and more site features were developed to equip Church members the necessary tool they need to grow their faith and spirit of camaraderie.

"Christian Unity is a Unity in love," was chosen as the banner theme of Kaanib.net according to Renato Patong, the site's web programmer. The spirit of unity is what the Web site aims to promote through the links and sections integrated into the site, he further elaborated.

Renato said online users very much enjoyed the "brethren gallery" section where registered members of Kaanib.net can post unlimited numbers of photos of up to 300kb image size. He also noted that registered users of the Web site are also thrilled to read and listen to their literary works and original musical compositions posted at the site for free.

Mark Aiven Antang, one avid user of Kaanib.net shared that in his work and while in a local Internet cafe, he logged on to the Web site to join the chatroom-like feature called Voicecast to interact with members. "It is an amazing way of greeting our worldwide Congregations' members holy kiss," he quips.

Being useful to a wider range of visitors such as non-Church members is one of the goals of the site, Renato said. Aside from the chatroom, there are feature articles which are updated monthly while the Church News Section are updated as Church-related news and developments unfold.

Daniel Razon, the Members Church of God International Vice-Presiding Minister, conceived the Web site to serve the members of the Church and address their needs at all levels of experience by balancing the web site's contents on what stands as biblical and very Christian.

Having Kaanib.net is one way of taking advantage of emerging technologies, Frederick Yap, the Church of God Web Team Supervisor said, then adding other websites maintained by the religious group are meant to spread the Word of God through the vast Internet universe.

Among other websites maintained by the Church of God, the Bible Exposition Online, at www.angdatingdaan.org, and The Old Path Streaming Media Resouce, at www.angdatingdaan.tv, have each won "Most Popular Website Awards" at the Philippines' Web Awards for fourth consecutive years now.

During the Church of God International's Quarterly Thanksgiving on December 24, 2005, a meetup or "eyeball" was held by the registered members of Kaanib.net. Attendees shared their experiences in their use of the site and suggested more site features to make it more interactive and intuitive to use.