SocialEyes recently became the latest entry into the competitive video chat service industry. More and more companies from hardware manufacturers to software developers are looking to capitalize off consumers' growing interest in video chat. Here are a few of the many video chat services available now.
SocialEyes, a new venture started by Rob Glaser and Rob Williams, will be deeply intertwined with Facebook. A spokesperson for the company said its mission is to use the social graph to allow people to collaborate and communicate with their friends and colleagues wherever they are. It will allow users to talk with more than one person at a time, chat via instant message and share information and links with multiple friends simultaneously. IBTimesFaceTime is a little more limited as it only applies to those who have an iPhone 4 or a new Mac computer. There are also rumors that the next version of the iPad will have FaceTime, but right now it is limited to two platforms from one provider. The best part about FaceTime is the HD camera, which on the iPhone was built specifically for video chat in mind. The end result is crystal clear imagery. ReutersCisco took a different approach to consumer video chat with the ūmi. Essentially, ūmi is an extension of the company's popular line of business telepresence devices. Cisco has billed the ūmi as the telepresence for the home. The company has tried to simplify telepresence for consumers and only requires users to have a ūmi system (which is a camera, remote and console), an HDTV with an HDMI output and a broadband connection. However, the service isn't free, it costs $24.99 a month. CiscoA U.S. judge's ruling has rejected Google's deal with publishers that would have digitized every book and made them widely available.REUTERSChatRoulette grew immensely in the beginning of 2010, but its popularity waned when people realized most of the users were naked men. According to Quantcast, visits have plummeted 60 percent since its peak. Basically it's a video chat service that lets users talk to random people. With one click of the button, users can switch from random user to random user. The company's chief executive Andrey Ternovskiy has since used the naked men to ChatRoulette's advantage. "Every day, about 50,000 new men are trying to get naked. What we're doing is selling the naked men to a couple of websites--it's an investment for us," he told Fast Company. Pictured is Jon Stewart, who did a ChatRoulette joke on the Daily Show. Comedy Central
