Lauren Bans was unimpressed with ChatRoulette:
I found myself fantasizing about a curated version of ChatRoulettepowered maybe by Google’s massive server farmsthat would allow users to set all kinds of filters: age, interest, language, location. One afternoon I might choose to be thrown randomly into a pool of English-speaking thirtysomething non-masturbators who like to read poetry. Another night I might want to talk to Jets fans. Another night I might want to just strip away all the filters and see what happens. The site could even keep stats, like YouTube, so you could see the most popular chatters in any given demographic. I could get very happily addicted to a site like that. I have a hard time, though, believing that random video-chat will ever move that far past the "Flash your tits!" imperative.