Despite massive press coverage, ChatRoulette never became the big social platform as originally promised. Largely for the same reasons that made it so cool in the first place. Anonymity. The idea of running into random people from all over the world was really cool. The problem was that many of these people were naked men looking to traumatize children.
Now, Google Hangouts, a new feature in the Google+ social platform allows you to hang out with your friends via video chat. This isn’t anonymous, because only your friends are able to see that you are ‘hanging out’ and available to chat.
But, what if you posted the URL to your hangout somewhere publicly. That’s what some third-party sites are offering, such as PlusRoulette and GPHangouts. So, this incorporates the anonymity of meeting strangers online with the fact that they’re not really anonymous. After all, they have a Google Plus account and can be reported if necessary.