Sure Chatroulette can be a negative experience, but this video helps show the lighter, humorous side of the new video chat phenomenon. It’s fun to watch a simple video make so many people smile…(video found via @luckthelady)
If you haven’t heard of Chatroulette yet, you might want to read here first before visiting…
Disclaimer: The Chatroulette site below can be EXTREMELY NSFW so I purposely didn’t link to the site until the end. I strongly suggest people read what the site is about before randomly visiting unprepared.Even after reading about it and going in aware of the content, I was still quite shocked at what I came across at times…and I’m not easily shocked…
I had heard about Chatroulette a few weeks ago but never had a chance to check it out until this weekend. And I don’t think I’ll ever forget the experience. I had thought that Ustream and Justin.tv played loose and fast with online video and webcam ‘community rules’ but nothing quite tops Chatroulette’s unfiltered and uncensored chaos. So, if you’re into the randomness of personal webcam videos from people around the globe, then you’ll probably enjoy the surreal experience that is Chatroulette.
In brief, Chatroulette randomly connects people’s webcams from all over the world. So it’s kind of like a modernized version of speed-dating/meetings with integrated chat. As you connect to another person, either they (or you) can click next to be randomly connected to someone else. And that’s where things can tend to veer into something out of a Tarantino film (think Pulp Fiction.) The site also says it’s screening obscene and pornographic content but there’s quite a bit on there…almost 1 out of every 10 random cams by my count.
Sometimes wacky and more often disturbing , Chatroulette’s appeal comes from the quick connection via video to anybody worldwide. My 1st experience with Chatroulette went something like this:
Connect to someone from Korea. Exchange ‘Hi’s” then moved on…
Connect to somebody who appeared to be from the Middle East…that person clicked ‘next’ before I could type anything…
Connect to somebody holding a Kermit the Frog puppet with Jergen’s Lotion. You can figure out the rest. A quick “NEXT’ on my part…
Connect to somebody dressed in a Cat outfit. Too weird for me…NEXT!
(Image courtesy of Buzzfeed as I was too shocked at the time to take a screengrab. I guess I’m also not the only one that’s come across this ‘cat person’ who I’m assuming is Chatroulette’s first “celebrity”. If you want to see some more images of Chatroulette, you can visit Buzzfeed which has some of the better ones – though some are slightly NSFW.)
Webcam usage is growing with Gen X and Gen Y so it’s only a matter of time until webcam chatting or videoconferencing becomes the defacto method of communication for these generations – I’d argue it’s already here. Also, from a technical perspective, this site is very well done as everything functions in a Flash interface so no need for any plug-ins or software downloads (Yay!) The webcam feeds switch out almost instantaneously with little to no loadtimes in between. Even more amazing considering it was created by a teen from Russia (see below..)
Now with all that said, Chatroulette is a great experiment and idea with worldwide social connections via webcam. I found it oddly appealing that every click of the NEXT button could lead me to someone from any corner of the globe. However, the site does need to put better safeguards in place to deliver a cleaner experience. The majority of the sites users seem to be college aged kids (18-24) but with no age screening and quite a bit of objectionable content, control measures need to be put in place sooner rather than later.
For more on Chatroulette there’s a good overview of the site from Fast Company, an interview with the 17 year old creator in the NY Times and a very detailed article on a writer’s experience with Chatroulette from NYMag.
If you are brave enough to jump right into Chatroulette let me know what you think in the comments below or on Twitter @Kobrakai. Keep in mind again that this site can be EXTREMELY NSFW so you have been warned…
UPDATE!!!
It turns out I’m not the only one to come across Kermit the Frog either on Chatroulette as this image is making the rounds now…
You can find all of this week’s Augmented Reality news on the Facebook page we manage (http://www.facebook.com/augmentedreality), but to follow are the three most popular stories of the week:
I used to hate Macs. A work experience with a G3, that seemed to crash every ten minutes, turned me off to anything Apple for years. Everything changed, though, when I got my first Intel based Mac in late 2008. The user interface was flawless, the UNIX shell made it a cinch to do back-end tasks, and I never had to worry about the issues that plagued that old G3. I haven’t bought a PC since (at least not without immediately wiping the hard drive with Linux) and I’m known around work as a hardcore Apple fanboy, but that might be changing really soon.
The vast majority of applications I write are for Flash (written in Flex). I love the ease of Flash development and rarely have any issues with programs I write for it. That’s why I’m particularly troubled with, what seems to be, Steve Jobs’ fevered desire to destroy the platform. If you don’t know what I’m referring to, Jobs reportedly told a group of Apple employees that Adobe, the developers of Flash, are “lazy” and that the platform is “buggy.”
I call shenanigans.
There’s a common myth about Flash circulated by developers not familiar with the platform (also known as “my platform is better than your platform” developers). They say that Flash causes most browser crashes when, in fact, it’s not Flash itself causing most of those crashes, but bad Flash coding by inexperienced developers. To put that into perspective, I’ll pose a rhetorical question. When an iPhone developer makes an app that crashes constantly or leaks so much memory that you have to restart the device, does anyone say that Apple should dump Objective C and Cocoa?
Since making the move to Flex, a while back, I haven’t gotten word of a single one of my applications ever causing a browser to crash. This is after extensive use of these applications, not only by the public, but also by a quality assurance department as well. Flash is a very stable platform when used correctly.
The iPad and Flash
Adobe has had a fully working version of Flash ready for all major mobile devices for a little while now. Other mobile operating systems, like Android and Windows Mobile, are going to use it, so why not iPhone or iPad? Steve Jobs, among others, would have you believe that it’s because the platform isn’t good enough for their devices, but that’s just a cheap cover-up. The real reason is that it would take a massive chunk out of App Store profits.
If you own an iPhone or iPod Touch then you know that the majority of apps for those devices are – and I don’t say this lightly – complete crap. The App Store is overrun with weekend projects by novice developers and rip-off products by companies re-skinning the same worthless app to get more 99-cent sales, and Apple is making a killing off of the suckers that buy them. Don’t believe me? Look at these screen caps from the App Store for latest releases in the Entertainment and Lifestyle categories, taken while I was writing this.
If Flash were allowed on these devices, almost all of those developers would opt to release their apps as “iPhone ready Flash,” raking in all the revenue from dozens of ads for enlargement pills and naked video chat, which they would surely cover the page in. If Apple allowed Flash on iPad and iPhone, App Store profits would drop by a double-digit percentage practically overnight.
Why HTML5 won’t be a Flash killer
Because of this, Apple is publicly throwing their hat in the ring for HTML5, all while completely ignoring some of the glaring problems that come with it. Mind you, HTML5 is a good advancement for the web, but it’s anything but a Flash killer, and here’s why:
1. Video codecs aren’t free. The reason that Flash works with all sorts of video codecs is because Adobe paid for them. When that responsibility is moved to the browser, problems ensue, because not every browser supports all those codecs. Mozilla has chosen Ogg, Apple is with h.264, since that’s what iTunes runs off of, and while Google is also currently with h.264, word is that they might be about to opt for a codec they just gained ownership of. This means that not all HTML5 video players will work in all HTML5 capable browsers. This is a huge headache for developers, since cross-browser is the name of the internet game.
2. HTML5 can’t make the level of games that Flash can, or at least not with anything near the same ease of development. Casual Flash gaming is a huge moneymaker, and no one is ready to drop it anytime soon. Just for fun, ask just about any Flash game developer what he would think about dumping ActionScript to write a game in JavaScript and enjoy watching his head explode.
3. Whatever HTML5 will do, Flash can already do it and then some. As time goes on, and more functionality becomes available with HTML5, Adobe will, through their normal development cycle, give Flash more and more features that HTML5 won’t be able to compete with. Two years from now, it might be that video players and simple rich internet applications are best done in HTML5, but, in order to do the latest things available, you’ll still need Flash.
4. Flash has a dedicated user base. 99% of computers in the modernized world have Flash installed. Safari and Chrome, which make up about 14% of total browser penetration, are the only browsers capable of running YouTube’s HTML5 video player. Things might change for HTML5 penetration, but not soon.
The future of my Apple fanboy status
I’m struggling to remain an Apple fanboy, with their ridiculous practices regarding Flash and closed development. The truth is, while I’m not happy with the direction their mobile division is going, I love OSX to death. I guess, as a developer, I still admire the hard working people at Apple who, behind the scenes, actually do all the heavy lifting that results in great products.
On the other hand, Steve Jobs is starting to look less like an innovator to me and more like the delusional cult leader that so many Windows fanboys characterize him as – blindly saying that technologies that don’t conform to his wishes are buggy and that their developers are lazy. I can’t help but think, at least for a while, that I won’t be drinking his special brand of Kool-Aid.
Oh, and he also reportedly trashed Google because they’re making competitive products. When the Google Tablet mockup shows multitasking and multi-touch, the Chrome OS has open development, and the device will almost assuredly run Flash, it feels to me like nothing more than sour grapes.
We Are Organized Chaos (WAOC) is Zugara’s (www.zugara.com) interactive marketing and advertising blog where we’ll be featuring some great projects and discussing upcoming trends in the digital world. Work — good and bad — will be critiqued. Hope you’ll enjoy reading our insights and thoughts on interactive.
