Chatroulette: Brilliant or Garbage?

Chatroulette, for those who don’t know is the webcam network that lets you see and chat with complete strangers picked at random. It is the new web phenom and everyone is talking about it, from CNN to hallways in high-schools around the country. It is very easy to use the service, simply get on the site, activate your mic/cam and click next until you find someone you wish to chat to. Oh and one more thing, be prepared to encounter a host of disturbing images especially masturbating pervs. Of more interest to me is the fact that the service was developed by a 17yr old Russian school kid as a way to pass time with mates. Even he has no idea how the service has grown so much into some web heavy weight people can’t seem to get enough of.

While the idea itself seems pretty genius and really captivating, it’s the quantity of lewdness that turns people off. The lewdness is so much that you will certainly have a scarred mind at the end of your chatroulette experience. A friend of mine once described it as Russian roulette but with genitals rather than bullets. It’s almost impossible to get through 10 people without running into a perv! It’s that terrible. Even the founder, Andrey Ternovskiy, understands that his little project turned web phenom might be under threat of fizzling out should he not do something to stop the trend. But how can you fully get rid of these pervs? It remains to be seen what measures he will take.

On the other hand, Chatroulette does seem to be a brilliant little startup. It is very addicting and one can’t seem to stay away. The premise is that you get a random stranger in your screen everytime you hit next. It could be a guy, a girl or some weird picture/video playing. Either way, you don’t get to pick who you will chat to. The hype building around this little project hasn’t gone unnoticed however, investors are already looking to throw some money into the project and make it even bigger. I am anxious to see where they go from here with chatroulette, even though it shows traits of brilliance, it is still terribly marred and that could limit or completely halt its growth.

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• The Surreal World of Chatroulette (tech.slashdot.org)
• Chatroulette: risque chat service or pornographic site? (guardian.co.uk)

Tagged as: Andrey Ternovskiy, Chat, chatroulette, Roulette, Start Up, Webcam