Chatroulette Founder wants to focus on Telepresence

The popular random chat generator which has connected people all over the world to like minded thrill seekers (and also a few weirdos) has decided to embace the video communication aspect of its service. The video calling feature has resulted in viral YouTube videos and strangers meeting even stranger strangers via the magic of the Internet.

The founder of Chatroulette, Andrey Ternowsky, has decided that text chats are a dime a dozen and that the real power lies in video chat. He will focus the future release of the website on the video calling aspects of the service, making the video viewing box bigger and setting up channels to divide up chatters based on interest. As the site focuses more on video interaction, the channels become necessary to filter out exhibitionists interested in certain types of visual communication not all random video chat enthusiasts are looking to witness. At the same time, akwardness and surprise are two things all Chatroulette players are looking for, and Ternowsky believes telepresence is the way to deliver that far more successfully than text chat.

As more companies adopt video chat and telepresence over the old telephone and chat box, I wonder if this will also up the awkwardness factor in the office? Getting a video call while you are eating lunch at your desk, calls from people you don't recognize, bad hair days could all lead to some awkward moments in business video calling.

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