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Content
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| Quality : |
15.0 / 20 |
| Quantity : |
15.0 / 15 |
| Entertain : |
13.0 / 15 |
| Updates : |
8.5 / 10 |
| Exclusive : |
3.0 / 05 |
| Download : |
3.0 / 05 |
| sub-total : |
57.5 / 70 |
| Navigation |
| Easy : |
7.0 / 10 |
| Features : |
4.5 / 05 |
| Design : |
3.5 / 05 |
| sub-total : |
15.0 / 20 |
| Other |
| Originality : |
4.0 / 05 |
| Hard Facts : |
4.0 / 05 |
| sub-total : |
8.0 / 10 |
Scoring Criteria New
New Update!
As of Aug 15th, 07, price of a site is no longer factored into the overall score/rank. |
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1. Lots of stuff just for having a free account.
2. More online webcams than I've ever seen before.
3. New redesign adds lots of features.
1. Quality varies depending on the girl.
2. Per minute shows can be costly.
3. Overwhelming in terms of options, clutter, etc.
"One of the better places for amateur webcam shows, but they offer up more than that (for free!)." |
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Ifriends is a bohemoth of a site, covering almost anything and everything related to amateur webcam girls. In the simplest terms, Ifriends is a community of girls, who actually work from home, that use the Ifriends software to broadcast a webcam show to paying viewers. At any one time, there are thousands of women online from all over the world, ready to do basically whatever you want for a per minute fee. But as you dig around the site a bit, you'll find there's a ton more involved underneath the surface, quite a bit of which you can get for free.
The first thing you do is sign up for a free account, here you provide basic info along with a credit card number (which isn't charged, unless you join their VIP program) to prove you're over 18. From there, you can access most all features of the site except the actual shows. I'll do my best to explain what you can find here, but know that I'm probably not even covering half of what they offer.
Each girl's profile offers up some info on her if she's filled it out, and you can also browse around her sample pictures (and sometimes video clips). The first thing I noticed here was the horrible quality, as most of these images and videos come from sub-$100 webcams that produce horrible images. Some of the girls who do Ifriends for a living have much nicer setups with high-end digital camcorders, and fast net connections. The picture captures are just 320x240, and are often plagued by low light graininess, amongst other problems. VIP members can "supersize" them to 640x480, but I think the image is just stretched as they look even worse. There are also video previews if the girl offers them. All of these can be found either in the model's archive section, or Ifriends' archive section where you can browse by categories (and there are a lot of them). Videos are presented in Windows Media format at 240x180, and encoded at 100kbps. The quality can look pretty good if everything is setup correctly, but a lot of times it's not the best due to any number of factors. The video is streamed in your browser, while VIP members can download and save them on their computer.
You can find quite a bit of stuff for free just in the archive section above, but the bread and butter of the site is in the webcam shows. There are a few ways to browse the available models, but the best way (for me) was just to first click the category you want (solo women, lesbians, gay solo, etc) and then a sub-category from there. On the initial page, only 30 "chathosts" (aka chicks waiting to get naked) are displayed starting on a random letter. At the bottom you can click a link to view them all, which is quite a large list depending what category you're in. Do yourself a favor and learn what the little icons stand for, as you can find out a lot of what they offer technically by looking at these. Some girls offer free phone with their show, while others offer the ability to actually control her webcam with some special software. Anyhow, find a girl and from this page you can go to her paid or free chat, view her profile, or check out her arhives.
The guest chat takes you into a chat room for free with the girl, although you won't be able to see any video. The next step from here is the paid chat, which will cost anywhere from $2-$5 a minute depending on what the girl charges (yikes!!) where you can see the video and chat with her at the same time. Now just so you know, at this point other members can also pay and come in on your chat, so its not private. If you're a VIP member, you'll see a button underneath the video to "go private" which won't cost you any more money, but will not allow anyone else to join the chat with you (or view the video)... pretty cool that it's the same cost!
The video itself is only as good as the girl's camera and net connection. You'll find over time that there are a lot of foreign girls on here (no doubt in some kind of studio in Russia or Brazil) which will have pretty bad connections. The video is 320x240, and is usually a javascript image thats just reloaded over and over basically to create the illusion of video. Usually the best you'll get is around 1-2 frames per second of video. Some girls offer a "live stream" from either Windows Media, Real Video, or some Flash thing that can improve the video quality quite a bit if everything works right. The biggest problem with these options is that girl's net connection can sometimes cause a ton of "buffering..." responses while you sit and pay for video you can't even see.
The content of the show is limited only by the girl you're watching, and your imagination. Ifriends doesn't monitor anything, as the connection is straight from her computer to yours. This can lead to some pretty intimate stuff, moreso than you get from standard webcam shows with 100+ other people watching. If you have gone private, you basically have yourself a custom video script waiting to be written which could be fun.
The biggest deterrance here will be the price, as those per minute charges can add up quick I'm sure. Some girls will offer up discounts to past members by way of a secret code, but if you're a VIP member you get that automatically from any chathost without even knowing the code. The biggest benefit comes from getting to know the girls much more than you would in any other medium, so you can build up good relationships with your favorites and hopefully get really good treatment over time.
You get a lot for free, moreso than a lot of free sites (although they do require you to register here). The $7 price tag for the VIP membership brings some really nice features if you're going to visit with any kind of regularity, most important to me would be the "go private" function. This site definitely isn't for everybody, but for amatuer and voyeur lovers its a dream come true as you can see real girls in their real homes doing whatever you want. As far as webcam sites go, it's not the prettiest, but it's bigger than any other sites I know of by far. They have a large variety of shows available at any hour of any day, which is more than a lot of similar sites can say. The site is definitely worth a look, and get a free account for sure to check out the offerings so you can see if you might want a private show for yourself. Even if you don't take part in the actual shows, there's a lot to keep you busy.
| 1st Follow-Up Review |
Review: 10-29-04 |
With a site as big as theirs, you can't expect many changes to happen too quickly. A quick glance around shows not much has changed at all. All the benefits are still there with your membership, which is great. They've added some small features here and there that are difficult to find at times. Some girls evidently have HD (high definition) videos up, but I was only able to see their demo of it. They also have quite a few different cam streaming options, some that work better than others, which is a nice perk.
Overall, I still think this is the place to go for live cams. With so many girls online at one time, the competition is immense which means there's tons of girls ready to go at the minimum of $1.99/min. Some girls even do free shows, only charging you to go private (where she finally gets naked) which can cut down on a lot of the initial chitchat.
Score decreased from 85.6 to 85.0.
| 2nd Follow-Up Review |
Review: 01-21-08 |
Surprisingly enough, not a whole lot has changed at iFriends since the last time we were here years ago. I guess a site this big is tough to change, but it seems like there should be better technologies available now. The HD clips are still around, but you have to upgrade to an Elite account for $10 a month to see them. Otherwise, the cam features are much the same, as are the rest of the stats. There's a ton of girls here, but it may be shrinking a little bit as time goes on. A lot of them seem to be from cam studios (in other countries a lot of the time), and it's a bit harder to find the real girl next door doing this kind of stuff. It remains one of the big boys in the cam show field of course, but the site is showing its age a little.
Score decreased from 85.0 to 84.0.
| 3rd Follow-Up Review |
Review: 12-16-08 |
iFriends had a huge redesign, but they managed to keep the look and feel of the site pretty similar, while adding a bunch of new features. They have more search options, more favorites features, and a ton more to check out. It's pretty crazy, and is tough for me to figure out at first even after I've been a fan of the site for a while. Once you figure it out though, I'm sure all the options are great to have. They're still pretty large too with 500 girls in the general chicks category ready to go, and prices seemed in line with what I remember from before too. The basics still remain the same, but it's nice to see some new features around for sure.
Score remains at 84.0.
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