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Chatroulette
Behold the next big thing on the Internet everybody will get annoyed with: Chatroulette. It's simple; the site pairs you with a random videochat partner from anywhere in the world. You can click "next" any time, or stay with your current pairing.
I think the site is a really interesting social experiment, but it's weird and a bit scary to use because you have no idea who you will be paired with. (It obviously shouldn't be used by kids). I can't make my mind up if it's a good thing to make the world more connected this way, or if it's just plain wierd...
As the video below explains; "It's like gambling, you can never predict what you might roll. May be an interesting girl, may be it's a fat asian guy in a pink bra".
The site was launched last November by a 17 year old student in Moscow with no particular commercial goals. It gained popularity last month after being featured in the New York Times, and today I notice it's in the Daily Mail too. According to Wikipedia, the site receives about 500,000 visitors per day and there are around 35,000 people on Chatroulette at any given time.
Watch the video below and make your own conclusions....
If you've tried Chatroulette then please leave a comment below about your experience - I'm curious to know what you people think.
Comments
Monday 1 March 2010 - 13:54
Hi Andy,
Yeah, I've used chatroulette to see what it was all about. None of the people I met up with looked anything like Genevieve (out of about 30) and I did meet with a fair few lads that needed to be quickly nexted.I don't think I got nexted as many times as Casey did tho.
How about you?
Monday 1 March 2010 - 14:06
I've only tried it once one evening... and it was a frenzy of "nexting". I was sat silently in a dark room which I don't think helped! Very interesting how we judge others.
Monday 1 March 2010 - 14:21
Indeed, did you have a light shining from behind you too? ;)
I've been on various 'sales orientated' courses and they tell you when face-to- face, an almost instant decision is made subconsciously as to the type of person you are dealing with, but clearly in chatrouttleland that decision is made consciously and without the worry of offending anyone so the next button is hit and off they go.
Tuesday 2 March 2010 - 12:35
Interesting news headline today: French Connection runs competition on controversial site Chatroulette http://bit.ly/9ryIcv
Monday 22 March 2010 - 11:24
I've just seen this video for Chatroulette which is possibly the most entertaining one I've seen so far. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32vpgNiAH60 (It's Piano Freestyle in case you might have already seen it)
:)