Giving Tworl a Twirl

[Jeff]

Tworl is a new service that randomly pairs you up with a new chat partner. The options are pretty simple, you pick an age range, sex and chat program (though currently only AIM is supported). Tworl does a search, and if it finds a match, you'll get a message with a big "Start Tworl Chat" button.

I gave this a try, first trying to filter to someone close to my age. No results. Tworl is new, and supposedly filters out offline and idle users. I go back and remove some of my constraints. Finally on the third try, Tworl finds a match (and BigBlueBall got a new member -- thanks Chrono803!).

Once a chat has been accepted, you'll see a screen similar to this, with basic profile info for both yourself and your chat partner.



The concept is really pretty neat, especially if they can expand it to include other instant messengers. But it's not without problems.

I found that Tworl incorrectly reported my age as 36, even though when I edit my profile it shows my birth year as 1962. I also found that Tworld didn't always recognize when someone accepted a Tworl invitation. This doesn't prevent you from chatting with someone, but it does prevent you from rating (Tworl uses a simple "thumbs up/down" rating system).

Of course, the biggest problem currently is that you must setup yet another profile (this time at Twirl) in order to participate. Being a new service, you might experience a lot of "no results found" messages until they ramp up.

For now, if you use AIM and are looking to meet new friends. give Tworl a twirl.