Omegle

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Omegle.com LLC
Web address Omegle.com
Slogan Talk to strangers!
Type of site Online chat, voice chat, video chat
Available language(s) all
Created by Leif K-Brooks
Launched March 25, 2008
Alexa rank positive decrease 3,056 (February 2014)[1]

Omegle is a free online chat website that allows users to communicate with strangers without registering. The service randomly pairs users in one-on-one chat sessions where they chat anonymously using the handles "You" and "Stranger". The site was created by 18-year-old Leif K-Brooks of Brattleboro, Vermont, and was launched on March 25, 2008.[2][3] Its logo contains an omega (Ω) turned diagonally. On March 14, 2009, Omegle introduced a video conferencing feature in addition to text chatting. Less than a month after its March 2008 launch, Omegle garnered around 150,000 page views a day.[4] The use of the mandatory chatnames "You" and "Stranger", the "Talk to Strangers!" slogan of the site, and prompts such as "Your conversational partner has disconnected" at the end of a chat appeared to fuel the popularity of the site.[5]

The kind of chat that Omegle popularized is called anonymous chat, stranger chat, or 1-on-1 chat. Comparisons have been made to early-1990s AOL.[6] Other websites that provide similar services include Zumbl, Chatroulette and Tinychat. The site now provides an Omegle mobile application that lets users chat with strangers from an iPhone, iPod Touch, or Palm webOS device. The mobile application for the iPhone and iPod Touch currently costs 99 cents in the United States. Currently video chat functions at least on Android, but the chat omits the language choice which is found on web version.

Features

Omegle allows its visitors to use a list of user-defined interests and Facebook Connect in order to meet strangers with common interests. The feature accomplishes this by observing which pages the users had "liked" on Facebook, although if the search for similar interests times out, the user will instead be paired randomly.

The site uses anti-spam software, known as reCAPTCHA, which periodically challenges users in order to prevent spam messages being sent by automated bots.[citation needed] As of late 2012, IP-bans have been issued to users who have broken the terms of use for a period of time, two weeks, according to some sources. This also affects other users, should they share the same IP address as the offender.

Omegle includes a "Spy Mode", which allows a user to suggest a question for two other users to discuss. The person who asked the question may not participate in the discussion, and simply observes what is being said. Likely due to users misusing Spy Mode to advertise websites, as well as their instant messaging accounts, terms such as top-level domains (e.g. .com, .net), names of messaging services (e.g. Kik, Skype), and the term "asl" have been blacklisted from use in a question on Spy Mode.

Controversy

Prior to early 2013, the site did not censor contributions through a profanity filter, and users may have encountered nudity or sexual content on camera.[7] After January 2013, Omegle implemented a "monitored" video chat, to monitor misbehavior and protect people under the age of 18 from potentially harmful content, including nudity or sexual content. To complement the monitored video chat, Omegle also has an "unmonitored" video chat that is not monitored for sexual content.[8] K-Brooks has acknowledged the questionable content of the site, at one time expressing "disappointment" at the way in which the site has been used.[7] In a 2013 case, the transmission of nude photos and videos via Omegle from a teenage girl to a schoolteacher resulted in a child pornography charge.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Omegle.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-02-02. 
  2. ↑ Brooks, Leif (March 30, 2008). "Welcome to the Omegle blog!". 
  3. ↑ "Omegle chat program can help you find love anonymously". April 14, 2008. 
  4. ↑ Quenqua, Douglas (April 26, 2009). "Tired of Old Web Friends? A New Site Promises Strangers". The New York Times. 
  5. ↑ Thomas, Owen (March 31, 2009). "Omegle! This Teenager Wants You to Chat with a Stranger". Gawker. 
  6. ↑ O'Brien, Terrence (2009-04-02). "Omegle.com Lets You Anonymously Mess With Complete Strangers". Switched.com. Retrieved 2010-03-17. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Chatroulette and Omegle: chat rooms with a twist". BBC News. 2010-03-24. Retrieved 2010-06-06. 
  8. ↑ "Omegle privacy policy". 2013-02-01. Retrieved 2013-02-27. 

External links

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