VisitorsCafe launches public beta (invites)

It's like ChatRoulette minus the dangers of roulette plus the relevance of shared interests

VisitorsCafe, a service that lets any Web community or blog implement a video chat interface to connect site visitors, just launched Wednesday morning in a public beta.

As of now, the service is invitation-only, but we managed to snag some invites for VatorNews readers.

I got a chance to speak with VisitorsCafe founder and CEO Morgan Hermand-Waiche about the service and what inspired its creation:

While attending Harvard, I had many people around me that said they had a passion for something but couldn't find someone to connect with who had that same passion or similar interest. Maybe my brother has a passion for the guitar, but I don’t care for it. Maybe someone has diabetes, but not everyone can relate. Or maybe two people quitting smoking want to connect.

With one line of code, Hermand-Waiche says, VisitorsCafe can turn any website into a “cafe,” a place for making “emotional human connections” with the help of high-quality video chat. He envisions that the first ones to use the service will be community sites, where members want to have face-to-face conversations with each other, or blogs, where the blogger might want to chat with his or her readers.

It’s like ChatRoulette except the “roulette” aspect has been traded in for relevance. Whereas on ChatRoulette, you would just connect to any random person in the world using the service, VisitorsCafe uses matching technology based on personal attributes to connect users who have similar interests. Users can share as much or as little about themselves through Facebook Connect or by manually inputting data.

And Hermand-Waiche says there’s little chance of repeating the rampant penis problem that plagued ChatRoulette, because VisitorsCafe has an advanced report mechanism in place.

VisitorsCafe, which can be implemented with either a full-fledged widget or just a button that opens a pop-up application, is free to use up to a certain traffic limit. After passing that limit, customers must pay a subscription fee, which allows for more traffic, in addition to adding customization and extra security features (like more spam control and 24/7 moderation).

The next step for VisitorsCafe is to, for the most part, listen to the recommendations of beta users. For example, while video chat is only one-to-one right now, Hermand-Waiche says he’s open to greater flexibility further down the line. He also says he’d like to engage with big publishers like Ning, Tumblr and WordPress to offer more seamless integration of his service.

Here’s the link for VatorNews readers that want to try out the just-launched service.

Try it out and let us know how it is in the comments.