Chatroulette is both interesting and disturbing. For those unfamiliar, Chatroulette is a chat site which randomly pairs two webcam users. There are no profiles or a sense of identity so pairing tends to be “unexpected.” Male naturlist and underage kids show up more than most and its in all sorts of legal violations.
But its hot. Even Jon Stewart (and friends) are using Chatroulette.
Like other online fads, though, Chatroulette will go to the deadpool unless it can mature (and deal with the gavel.)
So what can they do?
Recommendation engines like the famous Netflix algorithm rely on tons of profile data in order to make the best possible pair. However, Chatroulette doesn’t have ANY profile data - or even user accounts. As it stands right now, there is no data to build a recommendation on.
A simple solution would to de-anonymize by adding Facebook Connect & MySpaceID. While that would remove some of its allure, there’s a larger issue - legal agreements. By using said services, they would be upheld to a higher standard. DMCAs would ensue, if the app ever got approved in the first place.
So where can they get the data for recommendations?
I mentioned Foursquare in the title. In one way, Foursquare is Twitter with gameing features. I like the idea of sprinkling gameing features into webapps to increase Engagement and lengthen Customer Loyalty. Chatroulette should have a Ranking System. The main purpose wouldn’t be for leaderboards (though that would be interesting.) The rank would be used to match you - to find more interesting people and keep you away from the creeps. The rank could be composed of the number of “Nexts,” number of “Reports” and the length between “Nexts.”
I’d enhance recommendations by adding country to the algorithm, either through filtering or probability matching. People are already adding Flag overlays, so it would be a natural next step.
Chatroulette should also keep suspended users on the site. If you get reported, you’re banned for 10 minutes. There should be a wayto keep users - something as simple as a flash game or interesting twist on the idea. Right now, you’re band, you leave.
One last idea would be to time chat session. It is more inline with the “roulette” idea and it would create more excitement (as in gameplay.)
The fate of Chatroulette will be fun to watch. I’m really not sure it can survive in its current state.
What do you think about Chatroulette? Is it even worth your time?
./BBK
I must admit I wasn’t impressed with Google Voice at first. I didn’t see a need nor how it solved a problem. Now, however, I’m a huge fanboy. But its not why you think.
Google Voice is based on the acquisition of GrandCentral in July 2007. At its core, Voice is a call routing tool that integrates Calls, SMS, & Email in one service. With advanced rules like direct-to-voicemail or “don’t ring on weekends,” I can control my phone service like a conductor controls his orchestra.
That’s great, but where’s the innovation? Well, Voice brings a mobile-only service (SMS) into my browser. I can have zero bars and still get that text about 5 dollars pitchers @ happy hour. Awesome. I can also search my transcribed voicemails like I would email. Space Odyssey status. SMS is over 18 year old and hasn’t changed much. Except for now, it is distributed and cached. This is way beyond mobile web; its product synergy. And I’m a fanboy.
You might be saying, “well, Foursquare and Twitter are mobile applications.” But their experiences are just regular mobile pages or apps that happen to live on a mobile device. They barely exploit, let alone leverage, the mobile ecosystem.
I hope more products push the envelope and merge age-old experiences. Maybe you’ll come up with the next classic + classic = new.
./BBK
Content, & to a degree data, has become ubiquitous in this post-Web 2.0 revolution era. Having mounds of content is not only common, its expected. However, you’ll be hard-pressed to make a business around simply serving data (outside “Premium” content like TV shows ala Hulu.) What you can do is take the hoards of distribution channels and make something meaningful out of all this mess.
Making something meaningful, however, is tricky. With an never-ending array of technologies, formats, standards and groups, collecting content is sometimes harder than figuring out how to make it meaningful. Wouldn’t it be lovely if there was a system that simplified the management and manipulation of data around the web?
That’s where the Yahoo! Query Language (YQL) comes in. For those of you unfamiliar, YQL is system that allows you to work with RESTful web-services in a syntax similar to SQL. YQL has three key elements:
From a intellectual-curiosity point of view, YQL sounds interesting. However, many technologists argue that YQL is just a niche product and cannot be used for anything commercial. I claim that YQL is much more.
YQL provides two important abilites: managing web-services and manipulating data they serve. I really like how zembly manages available APIs, but wouldn’t it be great for Zembly if they just needed a single XML file? Then, once someone selects three APIs or so, how awesome would it be to write 3 uniform lines to get the data they need?
So far, the only downside to YQL is that it goes through Yahoo!s proxy. But, with a 100,000 call per app, per day limit, most projects are good to go. I looked for frameworks or libraries that cloned YQL’s syntax, but no dice. As of of now, you gotta go through Yahoo!. If you find a framework or library, let me know below.
All that said, I’d suggest trying out YQL. I’m currently working on a full OpenSocial Open Table. Try to find an API you’re passionate about and make table for it. :-D
Thoughts? Blurb it in the comments.
./BBK
Well, hello.
First, let me start with the formalities. My name is Jonathan Beri. You have arrived to my new web “home.” I am a product manager whose interests range from “all that is web” to Martial Arts to Frank Sinatra, and everything in between.
Be that as it may, the focus of beriberikix.com will be the ecosystem that is the Web. I’ve been thinking a lot about the web lately & its high time I pen some of those thoughts.
There will be 2 parts to the site: Articles & Web Trendz.
This will be the core of the site. I will be writing articles on a semi-regular encompassing several topics:
I should qualify that Rants is a catch-all category. Its not just a place for me to whine and complain :)
In Web Trendz, I will aggregate great articles I find on the internet. Think of it as a “ReTweet” for Wordpress. It will have its own home & own feed, but I’ll provide a combined Articles/Web Trendz as well.
That’s it, folks. I hope who ever stumbles onto this site will enjoy what they read and happily click “subscribe.” Please, leave comments and suggestions, as this is an evolving experiment.
./BBK
