Chatroulette is all the rage for many, while another good chunk of you say you won’t touch the thing with a 10-foot web browser for fear of seeing things that make you want to wash your eyes out with soap.
It’s certainly the hot Internet phenomenon of the moment, though, and we wanted to pair it up with an older meme that shares Chatroulette’s philosophy of randomness: Hot or Not.
Both sites are difficult to lump into a single category, and both have been accused of being little more than fads of passing Internet fancy. In Chatroulette, being “nexted” is somewhat akin to being “notted” on Hot or Not. Both sites are based on very simple mechanisms at the core, and both embody the general spirit of Internet randomness many of us know and love — perhaps to the detriment of our attention spans.
Last week, Microsoft’s Project Natal beat Sony’s PlayStation Move for the title of “Mashable Readers’ Favorite Next-Gen Motion Control System.” Who will this week’s winner be? Cast your vote for your favorite in this week’s head-to-head and be sure to tune in later this week to find out!
Pick Or Skip: Like Chatroulette Without All The Pervs
It has been just over a year since Chatroulette rose to popularity and subsequently fell out of the limelight because of the, well…lack of pants. Pick or Skip, a new New York/Paris-based startup, is cleaning up random video chat and providing users with a safe and fun environment to connect to people with similar interests and chat, sans perverts.
The biggest problem with random chat is expressed in a Pick or Skip press release. “There are loads of online chat programs out there. But most of them suffer the same problems – too many dicks, not enough chat.” Pick Or Skip has made it their goal to provide a great random chat service that lets you have fun meeting new people, while not having to worry about averting your eyes each time you skip ahead to the next person.
So how does it work? According to the press release, “Getting started with Pick or Skip is as easy as finding ugly me on Chatroulette, and way easier than downloading the software required for many video chat programs.” Unlike Chatroulette, you do have to register withPick or Skip, so to get started you’ll have to provide your name, email address and a few other little details. Once you’ve registered you can create a profile with a picture, status and whichever other information you’d like to share. Once that’s done, you’re ready to chat.
Similar to Chatroulette’s Channelroulette feature, which was initially introduced last summer to let people chat according to specific topics or themes (a feature that was subsequently removed), Pick or Skip allows users to chat based on specific interests.
Channels include everything from dating to friendship, new technologies, finance, music, sports, cinema, fashion, and politics. When you choose a channel you are automatically matched up with other people who are interested in chatting about similar subjects. You can also choose whether you want to talk to guys or girls, and you can select the language that you want to talk in. The site is currently available in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.
Once you’ve got everything set up, it’s time to start picking and skipping. According to the press release, all you’ve got to do is “Turn on your webcam, crack up the microphone, and you’re ready to roll! Pick or Skip will pair you with someone who fulfils all the criteria you have selected, and you have 20 seconds to chat to them before you can move on to the next person.” If you like the person you are chatting with you can “Pick” them, adding them to your contacts list for future chat. If you would rather chat with someone else after 20 seconds then you can “Skip” to the next person.
As you Pick more people you will build a contact list of online friends that you can chat, instant message and email with. You can also add friends that you already know to the list via Hotmail, Yahoo!, Gmail and more. I think it’s great that Pick or Skip serves not only as a place for random chat, but also allows you keep in touch and chat with your real life friends. The fact that you are able to save the friends you meet and talk with them again in the future also puts Pick or Skip leaps ahead of Chatroulette, allowing you to build relationships that last.
So how do they keep all the pervs and exhibitionists out? “Pick or Skip has a strict anti-abuse policy. This leaves Pick or Skip free from the problem of misconduct faced by Chatroulette and many other online video chat websites.” When users are reported, the Pick or Skip team reviews the report and then takes appropriate action, which can include barring users from the site permanently. Goodbye Chatroulette pervs!
What do you think of the premise behind Pick or Skip? Would you consider using the service to meet new friends?
Pick Or Skip Is Chatroulette, With Pants
For the small percentage of our readers who do not enjoy a random penis sighting, comes Pick or Skip, a cleaned-up version of Chatroulette.
The idea behind the new site was to build a safe and more structured experience on top of the random connection/conversation aspect that made Chatroulette such a craze last year.
To safeguard from unsightly sightings, Pick or Skip enforces email validation and the ability to report abuse. These reports are reviewed and could result in ‘naughty’ users being barred from the service completely.
The penis-free environment will surely be seen favorably by most, but Pick or Skip has a couple of more features that boost engagement. For example, users are able to enter language-centric versions of the site, specifically, English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French. In that sense, it’s much more reminiscent of startups like Tinychat.
Then, Pick or Skip also boasts ‘channels’ in which users can attempt to have random conversations in. These include: Dating, Finance, Technology, Friendship and Sports.
Finally, random conversations can become meaningful relationships courtesy of ‘Contacts’ functionality. Users can add other users they randomly ended up talking with, or import contacts from their Gmail and Hotmail and other popular email services.
Omegle and ChatRoulette Style Webcam Chat Shuffle People
If you haven’t yet heard of Chatroulette, the webcam shuffle site that connects you with random people from around the world, then it’s time to crawl out from under that rock where you’ve apparently been hiding. This viral sensation, created by a 17-year-old Russian programmer, lets you flip through video chat sessions with anonymous strangers using a simple interface that anyone can master. You may end up having engaging conversationswith someone thousands of miles away or you may connect with a curious voyeur like yourself, but you’re just as likely to come across the oddballs, the freaks, not to mention the downright disturbing.
Yet despite its weirdness, Chatroulette brings back an element of fun and surprise to vastness of the Internet, where social networks of friend lists and avatars has remained the norm for years on end. And now, thanks to the site’s popularity, the Chatroulette clonesare beginning to appear.
Dubbing the sites below “clones” implies that they’re unoriginal knock-offs. That wouldn’t be fair, actually. Instead, the sites and services, for the most part, represent those that have taken the inspiration of Chatroulette and what it allows for and have cultivated that into a new type of service – a niche service, a text-based chat, a funny web collection of imagery – that serves a select audience’s needs.
The Clones
Case in point: JayDoe and Zupyo, Chatroulette-type services created in response to this request from a Reddit community member who asked for a service designed just for fellow “redditors,” as members of the social news website call themselves. (Side note: Hilariously, Zypyo’s creator found that, despite the request for a “mature” version of Chatroulette, Redditors still wanted to see, well, more than just each other’s faces.)
Next up there’s CamCarousel, dubbed a “better Chatroulette clone” by its creator, Ralf Rottmann. Meant to be more as a proof-of-concept at first – an example of how to build an app using Adobe’s Flex platform – the site began to grow as soon as he launched it on its own domain, Camcarousel.com. He’s now considering open-sourcing the app and adding support for white-labeling, themes and premium accounts.
The Text Bots
Then there are the Chatrolette-like text bots like SomeoneRandom and Omegle.
Omegle is another Chatroulette-like text clone, but one that actually preceded the videocam site created by the Russian teen. This text-only chat site launched in March 2009 and touts itself as a place to “talk to strangers!” Also created by a teen, this time Vermont native Leif Brooks, Omegle may now gain more attention thanks to Chatroulette. A plus for this one: Omegle has an iPhone app for random connections on the go.
Another recent creation is text bot SomeoneRandom. Just add the account someone_random@ymail.com on Yahoo! Messenger or someonerandom@bot.im on Jabber clients. Send out a message (like “hello!”) to the bot to initiate a chat session with a random stranger. To end the session, type “bye.”
Popjam is a text-based random chat app that takes the conversation to Facebook by way of a Facebook application. However, as ReadWriteWeb blogger Dana Oshiro argues on her personal blog, chat services like Popjam and others miss the point of Chatroulette. Where the webcam-sharing site is boldy exposing people to each other’s real selves, chat site users are still able to hide their faces. That’s something that speaks volumes about our modern age. “I cannot help thinking that there is an entire generation who is fearless in the face of an anonymous crowd,” writes Dana.
The Spin-Offs
Finally, there are the spin-offs, like Catroulette, for example. This blog isn’t so much about real-time connections, though, just pictures of you and your cat. But don’t worry, it can still get weird, which, let’s face it, is the whole point.
And this is only the beginning, folks. Advertisements on various job boards have developers calling out for coders who can build Chatroulette-like sites or who are interested in buying ones that already exist. Prepare yourselves: the Chatroulette clones, variations and spin-offs will soon be upon us. Even Chatroulette itself is giving way to niche sites built around its service, like the MissedConnections site dedicated to those looking for romance via thewebcam service.
Will any of the Chatroulette send-ups gain the notoriety and user base of the webcam-surfing oddity, though? Likely not. There’s something to be said for being the original, and, if nothing else, that’s exactly what Chatroulette is. And it’s a weird, odd, but addicting and wondrous original, at that.
Yet despite its weirdness, Chatroulette brings back an element of fun and surprise to vastness of the Internet, where social networks of friend lists and avatars has remained the norm for years on end. And now, thanks to the site’s popularity, the Chatroulette clonesare beginning to appear.
Dubbing the sites below “clones” implies that they’re unoriginal knock-offs. That wouldn’t be fair, actually. Instead, the sites and services, for the most part, represent those that have taken the inspiration of Chatroulette and what it allows for and have cultivated that into a new type of service – a niche service, a text-based chat, a funny web collection of imagery – that serves a select audience’s needs.
The Clones
Case in point: JayDoe and Zupyo, Chatroulette-type services created in response to this request from a Reddit community member who asked for a service designed just for fellow “redditors,” as members of the social news website call themselves. (Side note: Hilariously, Zypyo’s creator found that, despite the request for a “mature” version of Chatroulette, Redditors still wanted to see, well, more than just each other’s faces.)
Next up there’s CamCarousel, dubbed a “better Chatroulette clone” by its creator, Ralf Rottmann. Meant to be more as a proof-of-concept at first – an example of how to build an app using Adobe’s Flex platform – the site began to grow as soon as he launched it on its own domain, Camcarousel.com. He’s now considering open-sourcing the app and adding support for white-labeling, themes and premium accounts.
The Text Bots
Then there are the Chatrolette-like text bots like SomeoneRandom and Omegle.
Omegle is another Chatroulette-like text clone, but one that actually preceded the videocam site created by the Russian teen. This text-only chat site launched in March 2009 and touts itself as a place to “talk to strangers!” Also created by a teen, this time Vermont native Leif Brooks, Omegle may now gain more attention thanks to Chatroulette. A plus for this one: Omegle has an iPhone app for random connections on the go.
Another recent creation is text bot SomeoneRandom. Just add the account someone_random@ymail.com on Yahoo! Messenger or someonerandom@bot.im on Jabber clients. Send out a message (like “hello!”) to the bot to initiate a chat session with a random stranger. To end the session, type “bye.”
Popjam is a text-based random chat app that takes the conversation to Facebook by way of a Facebook application. However, as ReadWriteWeb blogger Dana Oshiro argues on her personal blog, chat services like Popjam and others miss the point of Chatroulette. Where the webcam-sharing site is boldy exposing people to each other’s real selves, chat site users are still able to hide their faces. That’s something that speaks volumes about our modern age. “I cannot help thinking that there is an entire generation who is fearless in the face of an anonymous crowd,” writes Dana.
The Spin-Offs
Finally, there are the spin-offs, like Catroulette, for example. This blog isn’t so much about real-time connections, though, just pictures of you and your cat. But don’t worry, it can still get weird, which, let’s face it, is the whole point.
And this is only the beginning, folks. Advertisements on various job boards have developers calling out for coders who can build Chatroulette-like sites or who are interested in buying ones that already exist. Prepare yourselves: the Chatroulette clones, variations and spin-offs will soon be upon us. Even Chatroulette itself is giving way to niche sites built around its service, like the MissedConnections site dedicated to those looking for romance via thewebcam service.
Will any of the Chatroulette send-ups gain the notoriety and user base of the webcam-surfing oddity, though? Likely not. There’s something to be said for being the original, and, if nothing else, that’s exactly what Chatroulette is. And it’s a weird, odd, but addicting and wondrous original, at that.
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