Popmingle.com: A New Website

Popmingle.com is a new website, founded in March 2013. It might be a new site, but it reminds me of earlier days on the internet when I used to chat with other people anonymously using IRC (internet relay chat). A lot of students seemed to have connections to IRC through their university internet accounts (like my dialup one from the University of Washington), and they'd hang out and chat at all hours. Likewise, on Popmingle, you can hang out and chat anonymously at all hours with other users.

The site's tagline is "connect with local people." At first I was a little confused about the local part as I generally think of chat as not being location-dependent. When you chat with someone on Popmingle, the interface tells you how many miles away the person with whom you're chatting is located. The site uses a script called Maxmind GeoIP City to track your location, and it uses this data to show you other users near you that you can chat with, without disclosing your exact location.

When I logged in, someone started chatting with me right away, in a very low-key and friendly way. These days, I think most people chat with people they know on Facebook, so it's kinda cool to remember earlier days on the internet and chatting with random people about random stuff. The interface is uncluttered and easy to use. It will be interesting to see how Popmingle develops in the months after its launch.