So just what is a webcam?

Webcams are generally to be considered small digital (as opposed to analogue) cameras, which are directly plugged into a computer (i.e. a Windows PC, Macintosh or Linux computer). Webcams are nowhere as good as a standard digital camera – but that’s not the point- webcams are so people can communicate directly over the internet and world wide web in real time.

Webcam chat is where people chat to each other over a webcam. It may sound simple enough but it is only during the last few years – with the adoption of higher broadband internet connections – that it has become much more mainstream. Back in the 1990’s chatting over a webcam was often like looking at a flip-book in slow motion, movements would often take seconds to appear on the end user’s screen.

Meeting people over webcam chat has a few advantages, firstly, you can see exactly what the other person looks like! So if someone is pretending to be someone else over the internet, a quick webcam chat well clear that right up.

The biggest advantage, however, is that you can have much more of a social experience over a web cam chat. Unlike all the other ways you can meet people over the internet, a webcam discussion is much more personal, and much more like it is in the “real world”.