I normally wouldn’t post about a trendy web app but it has so much in common with an iPhone app I recently discussed that I thought it might be interesting to mention it.  The app I’m speaking of, which has recently gained quite a bit of web popularity, is called  Omegle (official blog here).  

Omegle is a simple but quite interesting app.  When you go to the site, all you have to do is click the “Start a Chat” button and you’re off.  There is no registration, no downloads, no wait time.  But who are you chatting with?  Well, that’s the interesting thing.  You are chatting to another person, selected completely at random, who is also using Omegle.  There are no names, no information at all on who you are chatting to.  It is completely anonymous.  By the way, the creator of Omegle is apparently 18 years old.

The iPhone app this reminded me of immediately is Distant Shore.  Distant Shore has the same anonymity, the same concept of conversing with complete strangers.  However, in Distant Shore, the exchanges are by “messages in bottles tossed into the sea.”  So there is a significant delay between responses.  With Omegle the communication is always active and immediate.  You can think of the difference as similar to that between e-mail and IM.  Another difference is that in Distant Shore the key aspect, talking to random people, is surrounded by a game of sorts.  You have the beach atmosphere, the collection of shells, the inventory.  Omegle strips all of this away and gives you the conversation immediately.

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