WebcamNow, or at least the company behind it, was supposedly a pioneer in online video chatting and streaming. According to their website,

“The company released its first webcam videochat services in 1998 with a mission to make it simple for everyone to broadcast live webcams on the Internet.”

If this is actually the case, that is very impressive, and it would explain why they seem to be pretty popular today. At first glance when visiting you see options: “visitors”, “members”, and “speedsters”. Visitors can use the site with out registering, but they can only view the live chats, not actually participate. Members can broadcast video, send messages, and save favorites, but this of course requires free registration. Finally, speedsters can do everything normal members can do but they also get “HQ video, 50x faster”, “full screen video”, and “private messaging”. However, being a speedster costs money.

At any rate, it would seem that a free membership is all you really need to use the site, and you can decide whether you even want to bother registering for a free membership by first just checking out the interface and number of users online as a “visitor”. It looks pretty user friendly and there seemed to be quite a few users online in my experience, so I would definitely recommend you check them out at www.webcamnow.com (site no longer exists).