Chatroulette emerged in the last couple of days – a sort of Hot Or Not for random Webcam chats with random strangers. Visit the site and you’re suddenly connected in a video chat with someone randomly selected. You can of course hit the “next” button and move on to find somebody more interesting – or better looking. As one might imagine, it’s led to a lot of exhibitionists and voyeurs tuning in and a whole heap of unsavoury characters, as blogger Jason Kottke has noted.
That danger of course makes it pretty addictive to some, but now there’s a somewhat safer version just launched, which is in fact a re-animation of a site that went pop only recently, namely PopJam.
But instead of webcams, PopJam uses Facebook Connect to random send you into a Facebook IM chat with a total stranger.
Now, although there is still no guarantee you might meet a weirdo, at least you can track them down and point a finger at them on Facebook, should the need arise.
It’s hard to see how this turns into a business, startup, or whatever, but it’s actually kind’ve fun, and way less stressful than appearing on a Webcam. But then again, all the usual warnings about weirdos still apply.
Built over the last few weeks by Pojam’s Alex Tew and coded by Joachim Krebs (former CTO YouNoodle), Tew has “some cool ideas about where it could go.”