Yowie has announced it is now offering enhanced group video chatting for consumers, competing against the likes of Skype, Google Hangouts and Tiny Chat. Yowie, known for connecting fans with celebrity chat hosts such as Colin Farrell, Amy Poehler, Interpol and presidential hopeful Gary Johnson, now compete head to head in hot consumer video chat space.
"By working with some of the biggest names in entertainment over the past year, we've learned that people with similar offline interests are looking to authentically connect online," said Yowie founder and president Jamie Snider. "With the new Yowie, we're making it simple and safe to not just video chat with a celebrity, but with anyone around almost any topic."
Yowie claims it is the first online destination to combine social interaction and a controlled environment for video chat. What makes Yowie different?
- Reputation scoring system: Yowie's proprietary reputation scoring tracks on-site user behavior, including how and why users are being kicked, banned or reported for abusive behavior. Yowie surfaces all of that information on each user's profile so that Yowie users can make informed decisions about whom they engage with online.
- Multimedia content: Have a cool new video that you want to chat about? Anyone can play YouTube or Vimeo media during their Yowie group chats, and new video and audio content partners — both live and recorded — are being added.
- Categorized topics and search features: Group chat organizers are asked to tag a conversation so Yowie can aggregate chat rooms by topic. Popular chats will be showcased to users based on their personal preferences, or users can proactively search for specific topics.
- Experience points: Users will be rated by experience points and earn badges as they use new site features (like playing media, or sharing the room with friends on social networks), encouraging people to use Yowie as a visual and social way to connect around common interests.
- Public or private: Group chat organizers will be able to designate whether a conversation can be made public or private. This means no worrying about eavesdropping on your private conversation.
Free and nothing to download: Yowie is a browser-based video chat service, so you have nothing to download. You can quickly start your own free chat room as long as you have a webcam and an Internet connection.
Other new features with Yowie group video chat include:
- Embed the full group chat experience on any Internet destination.
- A Facebook application for group video chatting that mirrors the vast majority of Yowie's on-site functionality.
- Send a recorded video invite to your Facebook friends to join you in a chat room.
- Custom room skinning for chat room sponsors such as fan clubs or meet up groups.
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