When a stranger calls

A few years ago you could have dismissed the development of a new social networking site by fresh-faced teenager as a curiousity, and nothing more. However since Mark Zuckerberg brought us Facebook and is now considered an industry sage at the ripe old age of 25, people now pay attention to what those crazy teens are working on. Case in point: Leif K-Brooks and Omegle. It's too early to tell whether or not he's going to be the next Zuckerberg, but it's still amazing to see how "an 18 year-old guy who loves computer programming" has created a site that's growing exponentially in users. Since its launch out of nowhere on March 25th (2009...about 2 weeks ago), it's gone from zero to 1,800 concurrent users in its first five days. At the time of this post there were 3,405 online.

Brooks created Omegle to facilitate chats with random strangers on the Internet. That's right - you land on the home page, click "Start a Chat" and the next thing you know you're chatting with....who the hell knows? It's the Web equivalent of hoping to make new friends by picking up a phone book and dialing the first number your eye lands on.

So what exactly is the point of this? Probably nothing....but it's not like you're already wasting a lot of time on the Internet, right?