Talk To Strangers

Remember the days, pre Facebook I suppose I should call them, when the best way to make new friends and to connect with people on the net used to be spending time in online chat rooms. Yahoo chat rooms, I remember, were quite popular. I don’t know as many people frequent them now as they used to do. Or have they too dwindled down the Orkut way? I suppose all the social networking people need or can manage, they get it sufficiently enough on Facebook and Twitter now.

But then, there’s always a margin for a little more and little different, as I discovered recently with a little help from Stumble Upon.

Yes, a few days ago, while happily ‘stumbling,’ I landed on a chat room. But this chat room was different from the other chat rooms in one major way, it enables the user to connect with a random stranger, no identities revealed, not even a user ID. And since the connection is random, there’s almost no chance of you ever meeting the same person twice on it. So yeah, even if you went out all your day’s misery on the poor stranger, you can be sure that it will never be thrown back on you. Although, ahem, as far as my limited experience with this website goes, venting out or having a deep, heart to heart discussion isn’t really what most strangers here are interested in. If you have had to beat a hasty retreat from a chat room due to ‘over friendly’ people, you’d know what I mean.

Of course, nice friendly people are there too looking for just a friendly chat to pass away an idle hour. Out of the five times I tried this website, two conversations were very pleasant and interesting, the other three demanded an instant video connection and suffered a speedy exit.

Have I piqued your interest enough about it? Want to know its name?

Well, the website has a weird name. It’s called Omegle.com. And here’s what it says about itself:

Omegle is a great way for you to meet new friends. When you use Omegle, we pick another user at random and let you have a one-on-one chat with each other. Chats are completely anonymous unless you choose to mention personal details, and you can disconnect whenever you like.

If you add your interests, Omegle will try to find someone who is into some of the same things as you, instead of giving you a completely random chat partner. 

Interface: The interface of the website is plain and simple. There’s no registration required, no logging ID or anything. Just go to the website and start chatting. The website carries the description of the website (given above) and presents two options to you. You can either hit the TEXT button or the VIDEO button. You can also enter your interests in the bar next to these buttons so Omegle could connect you with someone sharing the same interest. So just hit the button of your choice and start chatting with an utter stranger.

Caution: The website asks you for no personal information. And since you are connecting with a stranger, it’s also advisable to be on your guard and not to accidentally end up revealing any of your personal information, unless you are absolutely certain that you want to, of course.

Apps: You can also access this website on your iPhone by downloading their app from the app store. They don’t seem to have an android app yet.

Tohla: There’s also an Indian website offering much the same service, with some interesting apps as additional features. And it can boast of just as weird a name, if not more. This website is called Tohla.in

Tohla, besides providing the above mentioned chat with random stranger service also gives the option to draw doodles and share them in the gallery. You can also have your picture rated by the strangers, or cast vote on other people’s pictures.  These pictures are collected in a gallery and from there, I think, users can use these pictures to connect with persons whose pictures there are. That will surely take away from the anonymity promised.

As for the interface, it’s much the same as Omegle. However, it looks more polished and neater then Omegle. The website also clearly enlists the risks involved in using a random chat portal. If you visit this website, do read their Risk using Tohla page. It presents some really interesting, and shocking, facts.