your parents said never talk to strangers...

[Darren Dirt]

...but this is the age of the internets! Have fun doing EXACTLY THAT (don't tell your parents, though.)

http://omegle.com/

Omegle is a brand-new service for meeting new friends. When you use Omegle, we pick another user at random and let you have a one-on-one chat with each other. Chats are completely anonymous, although there is nothing to stop you from revealing personal details if you would like.

Simple idea, and with a little "luck" it might actually be a "cool" experience.

You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: hi
You: I wonder what type of people use this kind of thing
Stranger: dawn is coming
You: linked on the MuseLive.com forums, I guess bored people like me
Stranger: well sometimes asians and europeans get on to test their english
You: lol
You: or two english speaking folks, using google translate to fake bad english?
Stranger: how do you use google translate
You: http://www.google.ca/language_tools?hl=en
You: you could paste in a sentence and convert to say Spanish, then convert that to French then back to English
You: voila! can paste in a sentence and say Spanish convert, then convert to France then back to English
Stranger: oh

My guess is depending on time of day (/night) you might get some interesting people willing to jabber on... with no longterm commitment... or at the very least, in the same style as "pick-up games", you could have "pick-up debates! Argue with a stranger about the relevance of copyright laws in the digital age, or quote Kirk Cameron and pretend to be a creationist! Hours of fun virtually guaranteed...

plus, "there's an app for that", which I presume is something a lot of waiting-for-the-bus folks appreciate.




-------

oh, and this comment maybe identifies why I think it's a pretty cool idea...
"omegle can be a really good way to connect and vent to those who may be more sympathetic and sensitive about your problems that may sound stupid to those you know, simply based on the idea that you talk to a stranger. if somebody is stupid enough to give their name/email address, then that means that they?re stupid people who shouldn?t be going on such websites. but the problem is inherently with the person using it, not the tool itself."

...because it's not unlike why "group therapy" really works for some people; it can be emotionally cathartic, or even rationally helpful, to express out loud your thoughts/feelings without any kind of "history" with or emotional attachment to the recipient of your expression.


apparently some people are actively seeking out interesting conversations, you never know what kind of response you might actually get. Heck, you might even luck out and have someone of relatively equal improv skill on the other end!

At the very least you can use it to practice spontaneous DM'ing and/or to bring back your fond memories of playing frustrating text adventures. Or to display your quick wit ... or simply to embrace your inner a-hole.

[Lazybones]

Sounds a bit less useful than IRC, which is my preferred method of chatting with strangers.

[Darren Dirt]

Sounds a bit less useful than IRC, which is my preferred method of chatting with strangers.

who said anything about it being useful? imo

with IRC you would usually have a group of people with a comment interest, amirite? You might find it hard to blindly trust multiple strangers since it's a channel therefore you've got something "in common", also not many "non-techies" visit IRC (fear of bots, malware perhaps) but imo this simple interface I linked above probably encourages the old AOL'er types to casually jump in and chat and/or listen. You never know... the other person might be depressed and you can help or just make them feel better by listening or saying simple things like "man, sorry to hear that" etc., or he/she might be a brilliant creative type who can offer you advice on how to fix a problem that you are on the very edge of solving yourself but not quite there... or might be excellent at improv and be an equal half to a spontaneous improv session that brightens up an otherwise dull or exhausting day. And no chance of feeling obligated to stay in chat if they bore you or offend you, unlike a multi-person chat or IRC. again, imo. But my opinions are rarely orthodox, aren't they

[Tonnica]

lol oh Omegle! I've had some fun with this.

If anyone says OSCAR MIKE or STAY FROSTY just remember to reply RAMIREZ, DO EVERYTHING or RAMIREZ TAKE BURGER TOWN.

There's an ongoing suspicion it's got a high bot population (just like IRC hah).

[Mr. Analog]

I assume everyone is a bot

[Darren Dirt]

Wired (very recently) had a blurb in response to a slightly different "anonymous chat matchup thingie" ... and articulated very well the reasons why it isn't so easily dismissible as you might first expect...

Everyone (from the mainstream media to celebrities) is obsessing over Chatroulette, the website that randomly connects users via one-on-one videochat with strangers around the world. Why is it so addictive?

As Wired's resident Chatroulette expert (I've been using the service since it was created in late 2009), I think I know why:

Chatroulette allows you to unleash your inner Internet exhibitionist, with no strings attached
Let's say you're a bouncer at a high-class club in Vegas who wants to share his drunken exploits with the world -- or, maybe you and your friends want to create a choreographed homage to Lady Gaga's "Pokerface."* Before Chatroulette, there were consequences for uploading your antics to the web (nasty YouTube comments, the possibility that people will make fun of your "Singing in the Shower" video for decades to come). Chatroulette provides the opportunity to act like a crazy person online while still, for the most part, remaining anonymous. Just click "Next" when you're done entertaining (or, alternatively, gaping at) your current Chatroulette buddy, and voila: a new person for you to amuse.

The "Next" button
Think of Chatroulette as a gigantic dinner party, only there's no need to awkwardly excuse yourself when you're bored of chatting with a fellow guest. If your Chatroulette partner is droning on about his pet ferret or his fancy hat collection,* Next him! Warning: at some point you will, too, be Nexted. It happens to the best of us. It may hurt your feelings.

It's a throwback to a bygone, unpoliced Internet era

There's an ongoing suspicion it's got a high bot population (just like IRC hah).

In the wake of dubious Facebook privacy settings and Google Buzz, Chatroulette is a refreshing return to the days of the IRC and old-school AOL chatrooms. Of course, this means you're going to see some X-rated stuff -- this is not a site for minors, or for the squeamish. But, in an age in which potential employers scan your social networking profiles before calling your references, part of the appeal of Chatroulette is in its unsupervised shock value.

You can talk to all kinds of people, all over the world
I logged onto Chatroulette to ask fellow users about their best experiences on the site. Almost everyone I spoke with -- from Florence, to San Paulo, to Little Rock, to Shanghai -- said the same thing: "I get to talk to people I otherwise never would." I heard stories about men dressed up as Dr. Seuss characters, people claiming to be messengers from Mars, intelligent discourse regarding traveling, fine wines, and indie bands from Nashville, biology lessons from a German professor, and forlorn teenagers seeking love advice. Most people I spoke with didn't care about trolls or x-rated body parts; they simply clicked "Next" when faced with someone who wasn't serious about chatting. I think Mike from Palm Springs summed up Chatroulette's allure best of all: "You never know who you're going to meet. One minute you will be talking to a person from Europe, and the next minute a guy will hold his cat up to the screen and tell you to make a face.

It's fun
Chatroulette's 17-year old Russian founder, Andrey Ternovskiy, told me in an email that he created the site (with a $10 webcam and a few lines of code) "because I wanted to entertain myself and my friends. I am not even sure what the purpose of Chatroulette is now. Everybody finds his own way of using the site! Some people think it is a game, others think it is a dating service. I think it's cool that my service is useful for many purposes." He added that his goal, right from the beginning, was very simple: "To make something different from what currently exists on the Internet and to make something that isn't boring."

I speak from experience: Chatroulette is fun, and definitely worth a try.

*Yes, I've Chatrouletted with these people.

So, ummm... adding a webcam = wider news coverage, apparently... and promoting by celebs, but also mockery (?) from PA. ... and sometimes Gary Busey bumps into Felicia Day (joking, but perhaps not).

[Mr. Analog]

I still gotta try this one of these days

[Thorin]

Chatroulette = Make Sure You're Wearing A Shirt

[Mr. Analog]

Chatroulette = Make Sure You're Wearing A Shirt

LOL

[Lazybones]

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/2/22/

[Mr. Analog]

ROFLMAO!!!!