This is a pretty cool random video chat site, with a broad range of features and offerings. The name “funyo” is pretty cool in itself – easy to remember and well, gives you kind of a good feeling. In terms of popularity, this site is pretty well populated with users. If you take a look at its Alexa rank, it only reinforces this point, with a strong 50k or so ranking (which if you aren’t familiar with the system is quite good). Anyway, this is of course one of the most important things with any roulette chat site, since if there aren’t enough people these kinds of sites just really aren’t that much fun!

Anyway, let’s talk about all the features! First of all, it has the usual Chatroulette-style random chatting option, so no surprises there really. Initially I’m pretty sure I remember Funyo only having that one option and nothing else, but over of time they added a whole bunch more cool new choices for the dedicated chatter to utilize! One of these extras is their group chat rooms option which has video chat capabilities and runs on a super fast flash-based software program that has lots of extra goodies in it. Another extra is their own stranger social network, similar to iMeetzu, which is quite cool and definitely worth checking out! There also are some other things but I don’t want to give it all away so make sure you check them out at www.funyo.com! Update: Site no longer exists.

 Camzap is a roulette video chat site that started essentially as an exact replica of the original Chatroulette. It came into being shortly after Chatroulette’s rise to fame, and by timing it right, was able to piggyback on that fame in order to achieve its very own popularity, which it still seems to successfully maintain to this day. Whether you want to call it smart marketing tactics or pure luck, they are what they are, a popular random live webcam chat site. However, they do seem to be trying to make things a bit more interesting nowadays.

You see, there’s a good chance most of their visitors don’t notice this, because it is VERY poorly advertised, but Camzap actually has a new beta version that adds an interesting twist to the typical roulette option. First, they give you an option to register, and I know this may be a turn off to many of you due to the need for anonymity that is so often very dear to users, but bare with me for a moment. If you are in the midst of a random nexting session, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to click a nice big “add to friends” button and save a favorite new contact just like that? No more losing that connection and never being able to find them again, even though they could have been your soul mate! See, there are benefits! Yes, I admit, that example situation was likely a bit extreme, but you get the idea. Anyway, at least check it out – you can visit them at www.camzap.com. Update: Site no longer exists.

As far as I’m aware Chatville‘s rise in terms of popularity is a somewhat recent phenomenon. A little further research seems to lead me to believe that it may have used to have been some sort of Facebook app before shifting to what it has become today, although I’m not entirely sure. Anyway, now it has become an adult-oriented webcam chat site, and it provides some pretty solid software to back this up. As soon as you load the page you will see a listing of all the available chat rooms, and at least three will have 100-200 users in them, so there are definitely plenty of people available at any given time. However, there is not a Chatroulette-style option as far as I can tell, so if you’re looking for that you will have to go elsewhere.

Once you’ve joined a room you will see a few interesting features. One of the main great features is the ability to watch not one, not two, not three, but four separate live cam feeds at the same time! You can see which feeds are the most popular too if you need help choosing – it shows you exactly how many people are watching each feed. Although, you can start your own live video channel and try to drive up your own viewership! Overall, the software seems to run smoothly so they must have a pretty decent server behind the scenes. Anyway, if you like what you’re hearing, you can check them out at www.chatville.com. Update: Site no longer exists.

iMeetzu is probably the most versatile of all the chat sites in the “roulette chat” niche. It initially started as an Omegle imitator back before Chatroulette existed, so like Omegle it was text-only for a while. With the emergence of Chatroulette it added video to it’s repertoire, and then followed up that by adding an entire social network, the first “meet a stranger” style social network of its kind. At first, the social network allowed you to publish and rate text conversations from the random chat, but over time this functionality was removed due to privacy concerns, among other things. However, the social network continued to exist, as it does to this day, and has attracted a very intriguing unique group of people.

After adding the social network, iMeetzu wasn’t done. Obviously, being a social network they have had to continuously improve and refine it in order to maintain and attract more users, but they’ve also added yet another service. The next service they added is a group video chat feature, where users can enter a group chat room, and open live cam feeds as well as watch multiple feeds of other users who also have them open. This room also has lots of other great features such as animated emoticons, the ability to send gifts, and much more! To check all of this sweet stuff out visit iMeetzu at www.imeetzu.com!

 Streamberry is a video streaming chat site that seems to have risen to prominence very recently. I’m not sure how, but it was flying under the radar, well, at least my radar, but that’s saying a lot because I’ve got a pretty solid handle on what’s going on in this niche! Anyway, they also seem to have recently updated their layout and it definitely looks a lot nicer. But as for the chat service itself, it’s also pretty nice. They offer two main options when you get to the homepage, both of which work flawlessly.

The first option is your typical roulette cam chat service. It imitates good old Chatroulette for the most part. The second option is where things get interesting. They call it the “live cams” option, which doesn’t tell you much, so let me give you a more in depth description. This second option allows you to join different rooms of your choosing. Once within a room, you can decide if you would like to start your own live video feed. Whether or not you decide to do this, the other thing you can do is check out the live feeds of others, which you will see in a column on the right hand side. Next to each feed you may be interested in watching you will see the number of views, and the gender of the user. Essentially, this second option allows you to have your own show and/or view as many as 4 other user shows at the same time. Pretty cool stuff! To check out Streamberry, go to www.streamberry.com. Update: Site no longer exists.

 Chatrandom is a very popular video chat site. It began as a simple Chatroulette imitator, but as it grew it added more and more features to the point now where it offers a whole lot more than Chatroulette ever has. Features include the typical roulette-style cam chat, another style of chatting that involves group video chat rooms, and yet another type of chat service that allows you to show cam feeds and/or watch cam feeds with lots of other viewers. Thus, with all these extra features it is no surprise that Chatrandom has risen to such a high level of popularity.

However, one thing you should know, assuming you’re looking for a more mainstream experience, is it doesn’t do much if anything at all to rain in the use of the service in an adult manner – but this isn’t really surprising considering it’s advertised as an adults only site! Now, you can still find plenty of people using the service in a totally normal non-adult way, but just be warned that there don’t seem to be any restrictions, so you may run into users that you wish you didn’t on the random chat (just like pretty much every roulette chat), if you know what I mean. Anyway, if you would like to visit Chatrandom, you can check them out at www.chatrandom.com.

 Omegle is the inventor of the “random chat” (also known as “roulette chat”) niche. Before Omegle, other chatting services obviously existed, and there may have been some programs that sort of allowed you to randomly connect to another person on an instant messenger such as AOL or whatever, but it was never really utilized on a sustainable popular level nor framed in a way that really created a new category of chatting. Thus, as far as I’m concerned, Omegle gets credit for creating a ridiculously awesome category for chatting online. And yes, they came into existence well before Chatroulette, so don’t even go there.

Anyway, as should be expected of the pioneer in a specific popular niche, Omegle is hugely popular, and with popularity comes a better user experience as with most social sites. There have to be enough people to makes things interesting, and Omegle has this aspect covered. But, they don’t stop there. Omegle started with only a text chat version, then added video chat to keep up with Chatroulette, and then went another step further by adding something called “spy mode”. Spy mode allows you to pose a question and watch as two other users argue over the correct answer, or just blather off topic for hours, you never really know what you’re going to get. But, as with all roulette sites, not knowing what will happen is a big part of the intrigue that keeps users coming back. After all, who doesn’t want to shake things up a bit? You can visit Omegle at www.omegle.com.

 If you haven’t heard of Chatroulette, I don’t know what to say, other than you must not be paying much attention on the interwebs! Chat Roulette is probably the most famous of any website dedicated purely to chatting. It quickly went viral and rose to fame due to the “random” or “roulette” nature in which it pairs one user with one single other user. Well, that and the fact that it is a webcam chat session, not just simple text. You see, simple text “roulette” came out quite a while before Chatroulette ever did, and it was pioneered by a different site that also is hugely popular to this day, Omegle. Chatroulette, of course, took the concept a large step further by incorporating video, and the crazy pranks and other not-as-fun things people would do on video helped propel it to viral-status, and then subsequently it’s current steadfast leadership position in the online chatting niche.

Anyway, although Chatroulette may not be the grand-daddy of “roulette” or “random” chatting per say, the amount of attention it brought to the niche was extraordinary, and greatly benefited everyone involved, most especially sites like Omegle and iMeetzu. You see, the increased attention to this style of chat really peaked everyone’s curiosity, and curiosity leads to more visitors. With more people exposed to and experiencing this “new” form of chatting, it then followed that more people would also return. Thus, as sites already in the niche for text chatting added video into the mix and made themselves as alternatives to Chatroulette, their popularity grew dramatically.

As for Chatroulette itself, the site remains popular to this day. It has gone through quite a few changes since its beginning in order to try and solve the problem of males exposing themselves, and whether or not it has been successful in reducing such unsightly episodes is up for debate. I suppose the most important thing is that they’re trying, so they deserve your visit! Check them out at www.chatroulette.com.