No registration required for ChatRoulette craze

If you are getting bored with Facebook, then take a spin on ChatRoulette, the newest social networking Web site that offers users the chance to video chat with strangers from all over the world, while remaining completely anonymous.  The Web site debuted in November and is rapidly gaining popularity.

 In January there were 1 million unique visitors, according to The New York Times."I started using the site when friends told me about it. It’s interesting to see other people’s lives." junior Harry Savopoulos said.

Other University students, like junior Kristen Gonzalez and freshman Drew Paramore, also said that they started using the site after hearing about it from friends.

Almost all of ChatRoulette's popularity is based off word of mouth advertising. There have never been any official advertisements or marketing plans for the Web site.

Andrey Ternovskiy, a 17-year-old from Moscow, Russia, created ChatRoulette last year as a fun way to pass time with friends. In a rare interview with The New York Times, he mentioned that he never intended to run ChatRoulette as a business.

“I created this project for fun. Initially, I had no business goals with it. I didn’t advertise my site or post it anywhere, but somehow people started to talk to each other about the site. And the word started to spread,” he said.

Ternovskiy admitted that he is surprised at how popular it had become. On most nights, there are over 20,000 users online. One of the reasons ChatRoulette may be so popular is that it does provide relative anonymity, unlike other popular Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

There is no login or registration required, so users’ actions cannot be tracked.

The anonymity is appealing to many people who are tired of worrying about privacy settings and who might be looking at their pictures from last weekend. Both Gonzalez and Savopoulos agree that if they had to register they wouldn’t use it. “It would defeat the whole point of ChatRoulette,” Gonzalez said.

ChatRoulette also may draw in people who are interested in the voyeuristic side of our culture. Reality TV shows generally have very high ratings and sites like Youtube allow individuals to give anyone access to their lives. ChatRoulette is an extension of this phenomenon.

Users can quickly be transported from a group of girls dancing in their living room to a man and his dog alone in an apartment.

The videos give users a snapshot of another person's life and if they do not like what they see, just hit the next button and move on.

"It’s real. It’s not scripted in any way," Savopoulos said. One of his most memorable conversations happened one night when he was on the site with friends.

 “We talked to these guys from Turkey for 45 minutes. They were asking about New York and we were asking them about Turkey. It was a cultural exchange,” Savopoulos said.           

 While many students reported positive experiences using the site, there are other people who use it in "not so nice ways" as founder Ternovskiy stated.

There are quite a few people who decided to use ChatRoulette as the newest form of porn, although the site does caution inappropriate users will be banned.

"I have never seen so many pre-pubescent penises in my life," Paramore said. Although sometimes users can get this nasty surprise when a new stranger pops up, the chance of having a genuine interaction is worth the gamble.

“You just have to know to hit the next button right away if you need to. Even though you have to go through a lot of creeps, sometimes I get to talk to interesting people. Having a good conversation even though it’s with a stranger makes it worth it to me,” Gonzalez explained.

More users are expected to turn to the Web site for entertainment now that ChatRoulette has received coverage from media outlets like The New York Times and New York Magazine.

Even celebrities are using the site. Savopoulos said his friends have allegedly talked to both the Jonas Brothers and the cast of The Jersey Shore. There are also rumors that Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry frequently use ChatRoulette.

Hopefully, Ternovskiy will be able to keep up with the demand for the Web site he created only four months ago. Right now he runs the Web site on his own, which is a huge job considering he is still in high school.

The University students say they will continue to use ChatRoulette if they need some easy entertainment and a pressure free environment to meet new people.

They also warn any curious new users, however to always have your finger on the “Next” button.