Paltalk Editor's Review

Find at communicate with friends all over the internet with this great Windows chat and IM tool.

Let's face it, Skype is cool.  Video calling is pretty awesome and it seems that any Tom, Dick or Harry with a webcam can get online and talk to loved ones and reconnect with friends.  This is one of the reasons why I like PalTalk.  It’s a video chat and IM client for Windows.

With PalTalk, you can find and connect with over 4M different users all over the web. It has over 4000 different video chat rooms.  With it, you can connect with friends from Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ. 

PalTalk soars past Skype with its SuperIM mode. SuperIM allows you to audio and video chat with up to 10 different people. Skype only allows you to video chat with one person at a time, unless you've paid for its premium, Group Video Calling feature.  You can also use PalTalk to host and record your own live, web-cam show.  No other experience, software or equipment is required.

Pros: small, easy to use, free, SuperIM mode allows for video chat with up to 10 people

Cons: Chat rooms aren't the best places for kids, no parental controls

Conclusion: PalTalk is an interesting program, and it does much of what other, more mainstream apps do.  Its ability to allow you to video chat with up to 10 different users at the same time, lifts it above Skype in many ways.  However, its chat rooms made me a bit nervous, as I'm not always eager to video chat with people that I don't personally know. Its lack of parental controls also made me uncomfortable, especially for those thinking of installing this on a centralized computer where younger kids may be using the PC.