Last night I decided to have a go at Chat Roulette to see for myself what all the fuss was about. I had heard funny stories from both websites and from friends and thought I’d have a go.

Chat Roulette is a website that utilises video and textual chat, and randomly partners you up with someone across the globe. Because of this, it carries a great big NSFW title with it, merely because of the chance you will see something you aren’t particularly looking for.

I prepared myself for the worst, and knew that somewhere along the way I would come across unsavoury things. A website like this is prone to be exploited by idiots you think it’s funny to show you their bits, and surely enough, within 10 minutes of logging on, there was someone indecently exposing himself with his web cam.

The great thing about the site is that you can quickly move on from someone and randomly find another person by pressing F9, or clicking the ‘Next’ button. Even if you’re in a conversation with someone….the moment you get a bit bored you can cut them off mid-sentence by skipping along to the next person. Because it’s completely anonymous, they can’t contact you with abuse afterwards for leaving….which is a bit rude, but fun at the same time.

The best part about the experience is the silly and bizarre stories you walk away with afterwards. They’re from the people who aren’t flashing you, and who don’t skip by you in an instant because you’re not a hot, twenty-something female.

My sister and I started off by chatting to an 18 year-old Californian college student who was clearly addicted to the site as it was nearing 4am over there. He was still cheerful, and just happy to have a friendly chat to us. He played us a song on his newly bought ukulele, and asked us if we thought his pillow case was effeminate.

I moved on and came across a girl who was holding up a sign on its side. It read, “If you turn your head sideways, I win!” Below it were a whole lot of tally marks (indicating the amount of people who she had ‘defeated’)…. Surely enough, I turned my head sideways to read her sign. Seeing this she giggled and held up another sign, simply saying ‘+1’. She then clicked ‘Next’ before I could congratulate her on her idea.

Further along the way I came across a PHP web developer from Istanbul, a pot-smoking dude from Sydney, and a guy from London who showed me his teeth and asked if I was a dentist.

At the moment, the site is fairly bare bones, but with all the attention it is getting lately, it’s bound to take off and become something big. It’s free, and will no doubt soon be making heaps of money from advertising, or by Google buying it out.

It’s so simple, that it’s amazing that no one has really (properly) done this thing before now, and that some 17 year-old kid came up with the idea. It’s simplicity and ingenuity made me think about the similarities it has with Facebook and MySpace and even more, how I still can’t come up with a an idea like this that’ll take the world by storm.