Airtime Brings Video Chatting And a Pinch Of Randomness to Facebook

Another video chatting tool? Yep. As if Skype, Facetime and the other alternatives weren't enough, now one of the guys that had a hand in Facebook's development is launching a new video chatting platform that taps right into that network. Airtime is the project of Napster creator Shawn Fanning and tech overlord Sean Parker. On a simple level, the site launches a web-based video chat, which then taps into your Facebook friends in order to find folks to chat with. It's a little like Chatroulette, or it can be. You can load up your friend list and then select people from there to video / voice chat with, but if you're feeling crazy, you can just select a friend from a broader network and anonymously start a webchat.


You can even hit "Next" to cycle through new people, bringing a sense of "humanness" to the web. There's also the option to watch YouTube videos as a group, creating something like a virtual party / frat house. For now, you'll need a desktop web browser, a pretty great web connection, a web camera of some sort and Flash. In the future, mobile apps will bring the same functionality on the go, and we're sure it'll get even more social with music and games integration. Head to Airtime.com to get started -- think of it as Skype, but with a pinch of randomness.