Chatroulette is Back, But It Doesn’t Look Good

After being down for an entire week , popular random video chat service Chatroulette is back with a new version. The transition to version two wasn’t exactly graceful; Chatroulette was supposed to be down one day, but the extended downtime, during which the site was nothing more than a white page with a simple text message, saying the new version will launch “shortly,” was a sign that not everything had gone according to plan. So, what did the new (and, hopefully, improved) Chatroulette bring? Aside from being quite unstable yet, the site has a flexible but spartan interface which lets you drag and move the video chat windows around, as well as resize them (by dragging the upper right corner). The site doesn’t help the user or explain any of the features in any way, and – although the folks from Chatroulette dubbed the first version an “experiment” – it still looks very experimental. For example, if you don’t have a camera installed, the site is completely unusable, and it doesn’t display any kind of warning or message – it’s just dead. If you do have a camera, you get a new random chat simply by refreshing ( *update: or hitting the large, unmarked button above the chat box ) – there are no options besides setting the audio and video source, which appear when you move the mouseover above the chat box. As far as content goes, well, suffice to say that it took 4 full minutes of refreshing to get a screenshot without a penis in it. Yes, some things never change. We’re hoping that Chatroulette will become more stable and perhaps receive some additional improvements over the next couple of days; for now, you can still manage an occasional random chat, but don’t expect much else. For more Social Media coverage: Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Social Media channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

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Chatroulette is Back, But It Doesn’t Look Good