Chatroulette + Google Hangouts= PlusRoulette

Part of Google’s new social platform Google+ includes a group video chat feature called Google Hangouts, which is great for group video chat and sharing. As my colleague MG Siegler wrote in his initial review of Google+, Google Hangouts attempts to solve the social problem of video chat by making it easy for you to let others know that you’re interested in chatting. You can share a piece of content, like a YouTube clip, and everyone in the Hangout can watch it together while talking about it.

The feature is designed to create group chats (of up to ten people) within Circles on Google+. Of course it was only a matter of time before someone tried to add a Chatroulette-type of random functionality to the video chat service. PlusRoulette has launched as a way to create a public Google+ hangout that anyone can join. You simply create a hangout, and list the URL on PlusRoulette. If you are looking for an already public hangout, PlusRoulette will list available hangouts.

GPHangouts also provides a similar function by listing all the public Google+ Hangouts, but you have create hangout on Google+ separately, then add the URL of the hangout to GPHangouts. With PlusRoulette, you can actually create a Google+ hangout through the site’s interface.

Because your name is attached to your Google+ account, the smutty Chatroulette problem is hopefully avoided.

Let the random video chats on Hangouts begin!