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 Paltalk is an internet chat service for text, voice and video chatting. The Paltalk Messenger program is in a free, banner-supported format as well as an ad-free version that requires users to subscribe. Paltalk is only available to users of Microsoft Windows.
The company itself is a privately held New York based company founded in 1998. Paltalk claims 4 million users worldwide, making it the largest voice and video chat community on the World Wide Web. It also owns and operates HearMe, a video and voice-enabled web conferencing service that allows users to conduct group meetings. Paltalk became popular after Firetalk, an earlier voice/music chat program, became unable to maintain operation due to a lack of adequate funding.
Features
The service provides access to several thousand video-enabled chat rooms in which users can interact one-on-one or with large groups of people simultaneously. Additionally, Paltalk doubles as a conventional instant messaging service, allowing users to interact via Yahoo!, ICQ, and AIM/AOL messengers with a single buddy list.
Paltalk users can find and meet each other via Paltalk People, a social networking site. The site allows users to create and post their own personalized profile displaying photos and listing hobbies, interests etc. Users can then browse or search the database for keywords and view any profile that matches their query.
Categorized chat rooms are also offered, with the most popular being finance, religion, distance learning, politics, culture and music chat rooms where people play and/or sing songs. The chat rooms have a queue system which allows users to "raise their hand" and wait in line for their turn. Users have the ability to create and moderate their own chat rooms, however Paltalk employs more than 650 trained administrators[citation needed] to ensure that discussions are appropriate and do not violate Paltalk terms of service.
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