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Tag: ChatRoulette

  • Pick or Skip: Chatroulette Minus the…Well, You Know

    Pick or Skip: Chatroulette Minus the…Well, You Know

    I’m sure many people feel the same way about Chatroulette as I do:  Fun idea gone horribly, horribly wrong.  In the approximately six hours I spent on the site (all in one night mind you), I made one interesting connection with cheerleaders during a cheer competition.  They talked to my friends and me about the SEC Basketball Championship.  Fun.

    We asked them how many many male genitalia they had seen that evening.  They said “about fifty-thousand.”  Yeah, us too, we replied.  And that was always the problem with Chatroulette.  Even when they attempted to clean up their act, the damage to their reputation had been done.

    A new random video chat site launched today promises to provide a cleaner, more meaningful and user-friendly experience.   Pick or Skip‘s format is as follows:

    • Live video chat for as long as you want with a randomly selected partner.
    • If you are not interested in your partner then you can press ‘skip’ to move on to the next.
    • If you are interested in your partner and want to keep in contact then you can press ‘pick.’
    • By picking your partner, they will be saved in your connection list for future contact via video, conversations, instant messenger or private messages
    • The decision to pick or skip can be made any time after the first 20 seconds.

    Sounds familiar, however the features that stick out are the connection list and the 20-second minimum.  With Pick or Skip, you can save favorite chat partners and talk to them more than once.  You are also given a small window to make an impression on your randomly matched partner, avoiding the insta-skips that plagued Chatroulette.

    Pick or Skip also allows users to narrow down their chat partners by categories such as sports, dating and politics as well as by languages such as French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.

    The main selling point for the new site is their privacy and their method for reporting abuse.  If it works like they plan, it could eliminate much of the risk of popping in on something that you truly didn’t want to see.  From Pick or Skip:

    Online registration to the website provides security for all users. Pick or Skip then only connects their members without requiring users to initially disclose large amounts of personal information. Unlike the hundreds of existing socializing sites which force people to trust unreliable self descriptions, leading to false judgments being made on others, Pick or Skip is unique. Moreover, an efficient report abuse service prevents the problems of misconduct.

    Pick or Skip will have to compete with other random video chat options.  For instance, Rounds was launched in February and is one of a couple of chat options available on Facebook.

  • Random Video Chat Comes to Facebook, Courtesy of Rounds

    Last summer, Rounds (formerly 6rounds.com) launched an interactive video chat platform for Facebook.

    "We created Rounds to give online social networking and social gaming more of a real-time, fun, and collaborative feeling," CEO Dany Fishel told WebProNews. "Rounds bridges the gap between real life and the online world by helping people feel close to one another no matter how far apart they are geographically."

    Since launch, the app has been gaining momentum with over 300,000 active members. The company now has 20 games and activities for the app, including something called Random Rounds, introduced today.

    If you’re thinking random video chat has been done before, you’d be right, but Rounds insists this will not encounter the infamous pitfalls of ChatRoulette (you know, the perverted stuff which got the service more attention than anything). 

    Rounds Snapshots 2011

    View more presentations from rounds.

    "The Random Rounds feature is basically another interesting way for our users to enjoy our rich video chat platform," Fishel tells us. "The difference is, before, they could have either done stuff by themselves or with one of their Facebook friends, now, they can do them while meeting someone completely new."

    "Unlike other random chat platforms that usually just offer video chatting and result in quick meaningless encounters (which don’t go beyond a few seconds), on Rounds, when you meet someone interesting, you can immediately break the ice with one of the effects, or use the social tips mechanism to get questions and ice breakers based on that persons interests and likes, and then bridge the physical gap with the different social activities and fun real-time games," Fishel says.

    In fact, this sounds like a concept that could’ve made ChatRoulette more engaging from the beginning. Members can play with webcam effects, collaboratively watch YouTube videos, play multi-user interactive games, draw on whiteboards, send gifts to one another, write texts together, and browse websites such as Facebook, Google Maps and Flickr, while remaining in the video chat environment. 

    "We’re not trying to replicate or even enhance the experience of sites like Chatroulette, we’re just creating a new way for our platforms users to do all the different activities that our platform has to offer whilst meeting someone new," says Fishel.   

    "There are mechanisms in place to prevent questionable content from strangers," Fishel says. For example, only members with over 100 friends can use Random Rounds, and members are only connected to users within the same age group. Perhaps most importantly, members’ real Facebook account information is shown so there is no anonymity, and there is a reporting mechanism for singling out "bad" users. Users who abuse the platform will be blocked permanently and will be reported to Facebook at the risk of losing their account.

    I should note that Rounds isn’t the only option for random video chat on Facebook. 

  • Chatroulette Comes Back to Disappoint

    Last week, Chatroulette was down, displaying nothing but a blank screen and a promise of a quick return. That return didn’t come so quickly, but the site is back now…somewhat.

    The downtime message called the previous incarnation of Chatroulette an experiment, but this version is already far less usable, particularly if you don’t have a webcam installed. With no camera, you have nothing to do on the site but drag around some rectangles and wonder just what exactly it is you’re supposed to be doing, or what site you’re even on – there is nothing other than the URL in your address bar indicating your using Chatroulette. It looks something like this:

    Chatroulette Redesign

    If you do have a camera installed and are able to use the service, there is a good chance you’ll just see a bunch of dudes exposing themselves. This has obviously been an issue with the site from the start, but Chatroulette recently put up a message saying it was working with authorities to clean things up. On the new version of the site, there isn’t even a single character of text, save for the camera/microphone drop down menus.

    Something tells me this isn’t the final product, but either way, users are likely to gravitate toward other options. The novelty of the random video chat will probably die out on the non-pornographic level, as people can just video chat with their friends. Between Skype, FaceTime, Google Voice and Video Chat and other options emerging all the time (like this Facebook app), ChatRoulette may have a hard time keeping up – particularly with this kind of usability.

  • Chatroulette is Down, and is About to Relaunch

    Chatroulette is currently not available. The Chatroulette that we’ve all known has apparently just been an "experiment". It will be back today, however, if a message on the site is any indication.

    If you go to the site, it says, "The experiment #1 is over now. Thanks for participating. Renewed and updated version of the website will be launched today."

    That’s the only info that was given, but I guess we’ll know more details soon enough. It will be very interesting to see what direction the site goes in. New features? Personalized channels perhaps?

    We now know that Chatroulette can be used for marketing. The team behind the marketing of the film The Last Exorcism have proven this:

    Meanwhile, Chatroulette faces a growing amount of competition. Similar apps are popping up. People could also gravitate to services that cater to their existing relationships as opposed to random people (though Chatroulette has made efforts to reduce objectionable content).

    Rounds, for example offers an engaging new video chat experience via Facebook (and its half a billion users).

    Chatroulette has Napster’s founders working with it. Sean Parker recently announced that he’s working with the site, and it was reported earlier in the summer that Shawn Fanning was advising.

  • Apple to Close Quattro Wireless, RIM Looks for Its Own Ad Network

    Apple’s VP of iAd (formerly Quattro’s CEO) Andy Miller sent Apple employees a memo saying that the Quattro Wireless Network will be shut down at the end of September. Apple bought Quattro, which would lead to iAd, last year for $275. Silicon Alley Insider has a look at the memo. 

    Meanwhile, RIM is shopping for an ad network, according to the Wall Street Journal. The publication cites the popular "people familiar with the matter".

    Here’s a fun one. Have you heard/read about the movie the Last Exorcism? There’s a viral campaign utilizing ChatRoulette (it can be used for marketing!):

    Google reportedly wants Motorola to create an Android tablet for Verizon. On a related note, the next version of Android (after Gingerbread) will reportedly be called Honeycomb.

    ZDNet reports that Windows 7 is a hit, while XP is officially in decline.

    Experian Hitwise announced the launch of two major search products: SERP position data for all major search engines and search term sequencing for common sequential trends in search behavior.

    Perhaps the biggest story in tech today is that Intel is buying McAfee for $7.68 billion. It will be interesting to see what kind of impact this has on the security industry.

  • iPhone Gets Another Chatroulette-Like App (For Now)

    Apple has a reputation for being stingy with apps that could provide users with anything remotely resembling adult content (though it has made exceptions for big brands). Chatroulette has a reputation for being a place where guys show their private parts to random viewers (though the site is supposedly cracking down on this).

    Given both of these reputations, it’s no surprise that Apple has removed apps with similar functionality to Chatroulette’s in the past. They keep popping up now though, and with jailbreaking legal, iPhone users have their options.

    iPhone 4 9to5Mac points to an app (via App Advice) that has Chatroulette-like functionality, but has some additional recommendation features.

    "The app even promises to push out random video chats based on no similarities, FUN!" writes 9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman. "Also, Evo and iPhone 4 owners can now video chat, randomly, making Fring a thing of the past. So the moral of this story is that we’ll most likely have another post up in about a week telling you that Chatisfaction was yanked from the App Store."

    Either way, it looks like Chatroulette has inspired a new trend in random video chat services, and it is very likely we’ll see plenty more. Now, Chatroulette is working with Sean Parker, who had a hand in making Facebook the powerhouse it would become (in the early days).

  • Chatroulette Calls Upon the Power of Napster

    Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb reports that Sean Parker (of Napster and Facebook fame) announced from Techonomy that he’s working with ChatRoulette. This is particularly interesting, as TechCrunch reported in June that Shawn Fanning (also of Napster fame) was advising Chatroulette.

    PatentlyApple looks at a new patent application from Apple for a "smart bike". They liken the concept to Apple’s Nike + iPod system for runners "except for cyclists."

    Reuters reports on words from Yoko Ono this week indicating that you won’t be seeing Beatles songs on iTunes anytime soon.

    PocketNow has a photo of what appears to be Windows Phone 7 running on an ASUS device. The photo apparently comes from Pakistan.

    There’s an interesting article at The Register claiming that private browsing modes in the four biggest browsers often fail. This is based on a research paper that is scheduled to be presented at the Usenix Security Symposium next week.

    This week, RIM unveiled the BlackBerry Torch. Now CrackBerry.com has a teardown of the device available for you to check out (with lots of photos).

    Google announced that the Maryland Education Enterprise Consortium will make Google Aps for Education avaiable to 1.4 million students in the state. This is the fourth state to "go Google".

  • Chatroulette Cleans Up its Act

    Chatroulette Cleans Up its Act

    If you’re aware of the existence of Chatroulette, you’re probably aware that it is often associated with people exposing their private parts. Unfortunately, those on the other end of that exposure are sometimes minors, and it has become such a problem, that Chatroulette creator Andrey Ternovskiy has decided to get the law involved.

    In a message posted to that Chatroulette site, he explains:

    Luckily we all live in a real world, and we can easily apply the laws of a real world even on an internet application. With the help of a few good developers we’ve started collecting information, such as IP addresses, logs and screen captures of offenders who actually break US/UN laws by broadcasting inappropriate content in a specific situations. We’ve captured and saved thousands of IP addresses of alleged offenders, along with logs and screenshots which prove wrong behavior. We are initiating a conversation with enforcement agencies and we are willing to provide all the information we have. I hope that with help of a Criminal law we can finally get the problem out of our shoulders and get existing organizations which usually solve these kind of problems to help us.

    Chat Roulette

    Ternovskiy says they have already blocked thousands of IP addresses, and have reported known offenders. He says the service is already "much cleaner" than before.

    Finally, he notes that some new features are on the way. These include local matching algorithms and channels.

  • Could ChatRoulette Become the Next Social Hit?

    ChatRoulette is a site that is getting a lot of attention. Some think it could be the "next big thing" on the web. The concept is simple. You chat via a webcam or keyboard with random strangers. If you don’t like the one you’re currently connected to, just click a button (or hit F9), and you’re on to the next one. Maybe at some point you can find someone you like, have something in common with, or don’t find incredibly repulsive.

    It’s not for everybody. Anybody can use it, but not everybody wants to talk to random strangers. A lot of people still don’t "get" Twitter. If ChatRoulette grows that big, it’s going to have just as many, if not more people questioning the point of its existence. Still, people are flocking to it. There is a market for this kind of thing.

    Chat Roulette

    We signed on and talked to a number of people to try and gage the interest of ChatRoulette’s users. Why exactly are they using this site, and what are they hoping to accomplish? Is it just killing time? Are they looking for friends? Romance?

    One person told us they just use it to meet people for fun. "If I’m bored or something," they said. They said they have had a few interesting conversations with strangers, but some of it has been "some disgusting guys showing their d****."  (Note: Beware that if you start using the site, you may be blindsided by stuff like this)

    "They got to stop…it’s annoying," this person tells us. And they’ve only been using it for a week. Actually, some of the attention ChatRoulette has been getting has been based on this kind of obscene behavior. Chatroulette clearly says on its home page that it "does not tolerate broadcasting obscene, offending, pornographic material, and we will have to block users who violate these rules from using our service," but that does not stop people from using it for those purposes.

    A Huffington Post article likens the service to "inviting pedophiles into your home." Scary stuff, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t potential for cleaning the site up. The guy who runs the site is only seventeen years old, and there has already been interest expressed from investors. This thing could become much bigger in time, and managed more thoroughly.

    That’s not to take anything away from founder Andrey Ternovskiy. Policing such a site would be a burden for most, and he’s clearly a quite knowledgeable kid. He started ChatRoulette for fun and has been coding since the age of 11. He talked a good deal about his background to the New York Times. According to that article, the site gets "about 20,000 users on a typical night."

    One could envision ChatRoulette utilizing a traditional social media model, where people can follow (or friend) one another, but for right now, it’s just random. It’s kind of like a video chat version of StumbleUpon, without the personalization features. There is plenty of potential for features to be added in the future though, and perhaps better management of obscene behavior. This site may be one to keep an eye on.

    Have you used ChatRoulette? Would you? Does it have the potential to become something really big? Share your thoughts here.