As far as I can tell, the tags function works on all my vShare sites. I add tags to the videos and they show up in the tags list (for example, see it in action at http://combatarmsvideos.com at the bottom of the page and then click "see more tags"). No one has reported this as a bug (as far as I know), so I'm not sure why it wouldn't be working right on your site alone. In your admin control panel, how many tags so you have it set to display? Maybe you need to put in a number and/or enable tags on the front page.

Again, the search function is a known issue, reported to be resolved with vShare 2.7 when it comes out (do a forum search for the topic, particularly in the bug reports section).

You can't send message to members, only friends? Odd, again, I am able to send messages to other members who are not on my friends list. I received the email notification of a private message that you sent to me at df2videos.com as well as the message showing up in my inbox at the site.... and you are not on my friends list.

There must be something wrong with your installation of vShare. What version are you using?