Chat Roulette, Anonymous Webcams, and Some Awesome Piano Improv

So Chatroulette (probably, eventually NSFW) is this site that’s been making the rounds the past few weeks or so. The premise is pretty straightforward: you visit the site, and you get set up with another random person who is also visiting the site… and a web cam session is created.

Here’s the thing though: you could get matched up with pretty much anyone. I’ve done it a few times, and it’s mostly been benign… but I have this fear that I’ll eventually see some dude whipping out his junk. In fact, I’m betting it’s just a matter of time before that kind of thing happens.

Since the site has taken on meme status, a few new developments have come about. There’s now a Chatroulette Map that shows screencaps and locations of people. Though I haven’t seen it for myself, I’m guessing 4chan has set up lots of awful stuff set to video loops.

Here’s a funny take on the whole thing from the Daily Show:

One of the more awesome things to have happened as a result of Chatroulette is a piano improv routine done by a guy named Merton. He recorded his sessions, and made up songs for each person he got matched up with. Take a look/listen:

You may notice that Merton looks a bit like Ben Folds. Well guess what – Ben Folds ended up doing his tribute to Merton, and set up Chatroulette during several of his concerts. Check it out:

Funny, funny stuff. It’ll be interesting to see if there are more playful takes on this site, or if it’ll just end up being the anonymous exhibitionist flasher site it was designed to be.