Chatroulette? Yet another American idea that would change the world? Nope! This time, it’s from Russia with lots of love! The Chatroulette web site was created by Andrey Ternovskiy, a 17-year-old high school student/geek in Moscow. And this teenager is not your ordinary schoolmate at school, he coded Chatroulette in just two days two nights!
What is Chatroulette Anyway?
Well, like Skype, it offers synchronous text-based chat function with video and audio chat features. The difference is you’ll be paired with complete strangers and initiate a conversation once you click "NEW GAME". I’m not sure why Ternovskiy called it a game as if you’ll be completing chats to collect points. You can click "Next" in order to be paired with other strangers.
Launched about 5 months ago (in November 2009), the traffic to this site has increased tremendously. It only have 500 visitors during its launch month and now it has 1.5 million users! The website is currently popular in the US, especially when some celebrities like Kelly Osbourne, Joel Madden, Nicole Richie have claimed that they have used it before.
How to Join?
No registration is required and everyone above 16 (though I don’t think they can really trace your age!) can join. You’ll also need to have a webcam for video chat. Audio chat through microphone is optional. The webcam connection is based on Flash’ peer-to-peer network capabilities, which will not use the server bandwidth. Which also mean, the bandwidth will be "shared" by the users. The chat function also prohibits pornographic behavior and user can report anyone who have violated the rules.
Final Remarks
I tried the website for about 15 minutes and was unable to get a decent chat as most of the "strangers’ decided to change partner by clicking "Next". I waited for those who are willing to chat and only managed to chat for about 5 minutes with a student from Australia. But I got her Skype ID, which perhaps is a better choice for real web conversation. I also noticed that there were more male users and some were there mainly for "cyber sex". I even spotted three naked guys holding their pxxxx!! Speechless!
I doubt it would be a success as the site has only 1 advertisement so far and the interface really needs to be improved!
You can try Chatroulette and judge it yourself.
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