As a user port developer at Google , Orkut Buyukkokten , like other Google employees , was encouraged to practice 20 pct of his time , or one twenty-four hour period a week , to work on personal projects . Buyukkokten used that metre rise a societal networking entanglement situation name orkut , which start mostly as an online community among Google employees . When Google fill orkut public in 2004 , it chop-chop became the hottest social web site in Brazil and India [ sources : Nielsen , CyberMedia India Online ] .
Orkut is a free societal networking Web site where you may create a profile , connect with friends , maintain an online scrapbook and habituate site features and app to share your interests and touch others . Orkut user must agree that they ’re 18 or older to apply the internet site . Orkut was invitation - only for most of its first five geezerhood , but now it ’s uncommitted without an invitation . All you need is a Google exploiter account – and you may already have one if you use other Google services , such as Gmail .
Orkut ’s public release follow rumor that Google was thinking about buying the social meshwork site Friendster . With no formal commitment to corroborate the website , Google labeled orkut as beta software . Google did make a commitment to site development , though , moving orkut development to Brazil in July 2008 . More than any other land , Brazil has the high level of societal networking among its population , a fact that contributed to Google ’s decision to make Brazil the pith of its Romance American operations [ source : Nielsen , Hendrickson ] .
Currently more than half of orkut users are ages 18 - 25 , and almost one-half are from Brazil . The turn of orkut users in India is almost equivalent to those in its original dwelling in the United States [ reference : orkut ] . In the United States , though , orkut does not rank among the top ten in social networking land site , where Facebook and MySpace are the clear front - runners [ source : Nielsen ] . Google has released arena specific to India ( www.google.co.in ) and Brazil ( www.google.com.br ) in response to its outgrowth in those countries , and both sites admit a contact to orkut at the top of the main page .
Using Orkut
To start using orkut , even just to get hold users and read biotic community forums , you must create an account and sign in to the on-line biotic community . Orkut requires a Google user account , and it uses the same Internet cookie for your login sitting as other Google applications . That means if you ’re logged in to Google Reader or Gmail , you ’re logged in to orkut , too . If you do not have a Google account , orkut prompts you to make one . After you ’re lumber in to your Google account , orkut prompts you to discharge a manikin to add an orkut account on top of your Google explanation . As part of the manakin , you must agree that you are age 18 or older .
While you ’re logged in to the orkut societal web , your home Thomas Nelson Page provide linkup to all the site ’s features . Edit your profile to lend personal information and to set whether just you , your Friend , or everyone at orkut can see some or all of that info . you’re able to also edit your mount to set sharing levels for things you send , to customize other orkut features and to delete your orkut account ( which does not delete your Google account ) .
Like other social networking Web site , orkut includes features for deal your own interest and activities :
To web with others on orkut , you may add supporter and participate in residential district . you could also utilise the orkut hunt in the upper right corner of your screen to search for other exploiter or for topic of interest . From there , you may unite to any biotic community you like , with access to its forum , online polls , penis list and related communities . you’re able to even create a raw community and hold how appendage can link up and interact there .
By adding friends in orkut , you may interact more directly with other users . Similar to other societal web sites , the orkut " friends " status lets you insure who can see certain thing you post on orkut . When you add a admirer , orkut sends a friend request to the object user who must O.K. to create that friend connection . Some places to find supporter on orkut are the suggestions on your household Thomas Nelson Page and your conversancy at orkut biotic community .
you could interact with your orkut ally in several ways :
OpenSocial Technology and Orkut
OpenSocial is the engineering that drives orkut . OpenSocialis an enterprisingness to build social networking web site around a central user account imagination . With OpenSocial , companies like Google let you make a single drug user story that lend oneself to several separate applications such as e - postal service , calendars and instant content services . While exclusive mansion - on ( SSO ) permit you to access to several applications with only one set of exploiter credentials , OpenSocial choke beyond that by sharing your complete user profile between those software , often in the same graphical user port .
OpenSocial uses the termsocial gadgetto refer to each interactive feature you add to your societal meshwork . A drug user access at a societal web Web land site may see the social appliance as just a steady internet site feature like managing picture , or as an summate - on feature ( often called an program or widget ) like euphony or a game . OpenSocial programmers frame each societal gadget in one or more XML file calledgadget specifications . Then , they programme the appliance single-valued function by adding JavaScript codification within those file .
As an OpenSocial programmer , you do n’t have to start from bread by coiffure up societal gadgets . OpenSocial already has an program programming interface ( API ) with code for many common software action used in a social internet . For example , you may add a single line to your code to call a function from the API which request all the expand profile information about a picky exploiter . Then , you may use that information for other action in your social gadget , such as to number the substance abuser ’s favorite books , or to show that user ’s location on a function . OpenSocial.org provide several articles and tutorial to help you get come out create your social gadget , with several instance featuring Google .
In orkut , you’re able to add any of thousands of applications programme to the Apps subdivision of your home page . When you desire to venture into developing your own app program for orkut , the orkut Developer Web situation is the place to get started . These resource include orkut ’s terminology , requirements , commend exploitation practices and links to OpenSocial resource . you’re able to step through the OpenSocial Tutorial for orkut , and you’re able to even learn how to request profile info specific to orkut user accounts . These resource take for granted some familiarity with computer computer programing concepts , if not verbatim experience with JavaScript .
Benefits of Orkut
The benefits of orkut are exchangeable to those of other societal networking Web sites . Orkut gives you tool to keep in touch with friends , deal a morsel of yourself and meet people who apportion your interests . It also fosters a sentiency of security system by requiring rank to use the site , restricting the membership age to 18 and old and allowing you to show or hide sure information from other user . With its outgrowth in Brazil and India , it encourages growth among those who share the cultures and language of those countries .
Another welfare of orkut is that it ’s free of the standard ads that take up space on some other societal web Web site . Instead of positioning banner ads on every orkut page , Google site advertizing in the search results when you research orkut for a special topic . Google selects ads by combining your current placement with the actor’s line you used in your search . For example , a search for " volkswagen " point not only the users , communities , and theme in orkut , but it also shows advertising link for local Volkswagen dealerships and Web website where you could find deduction Volkswagen region .
Orkut ’s primary competitors are other social networking site with similar features and extendibility through applications programme . This includes Facebook and MySpace , which currently overlook the market in the United States and are fast uprise in global popularity , too [ source : Nielsen ] . While orkut far outweighs its competition in Brazil and India , it has a long room to rise in its home land , even though Google is the top cyberspace brand in the United States [ source : Nielsen ] .
Challenges of Orkut
Like its benefit , some of orkut ’s challenge are similar to other societal connection sites . Early on , orkut address one of these challenges , user legitimacy , with its testimonial feature film . Your testimonials are posts by your friends trace what they think of you . Others users can read your testimonials to verify if they trust you and need to accept your friend petition . testimonial at orkut make it more hard for drug user to mislead others with their profile details , reducing the potential drop for stalkers and cyber predators .
Despite the testimonial feature , user authenticity on orkut was still refutable while invitations were a red-hot commodity . Until orkut removed its invitation requirement , some current exploiter put invitations up for vendue on eBay while prospective substance abuser posted everywhere online hoping to find such a coveted token . In July 2005 , blogger Alvaro Antunes reported that he had hold one such invitation from a person he did n’t do it , and described his experience feeling as if masses were impart him as a friend without any genuine interestingness in friendship [ beginning : Antunes ] .
Perhaps orkut ’s big challenge has been the effectual engagement associated with the land site in both Brazil and India . In 2005 , Brazilian federal agency used phone tapping to uncover a drug pack , and monitor their use of orkut communities to set up peck to sell ecstasy and marijuana . A year later , Brazilian prosecutors relate illegal adult and anti-Semite materials to orkut communities , with a judge arrange the Google social unit to provide secure account data about suspected orkut users [ reservoir : Nicaretta ] . Also in 2006 , Google was held creditworthy for anti - India sentiments posted at orkut , and the companionship worked to correct the issue even before receiving a schematic posting from Indian authorities [ source : Mill ] .
In each effectual case , Google has cautiously addressed each subpoena ad testificandum for search petition information and private exploiter information . Google has removed orkut communities and user in violation of its terms of service , and added a " Keep orkut Beautiful " page describing its loyalty to cooperate with legal authority and to keep the web site " fun and clean . " However , there have been some setback . In 2009 , when a 19 - yr - sometime blogger in India created a community to speak out against the political party Shiv Sena , orkut was cite as the guilty Web site , but the blogger himself , not Google , was summons as the responsible company in the sound causa [ reservoir : Mahapatra ] .
Google has go on to make improvements to orkut so as to keep it competitive , good , and fun to use . Today , it ’s a secure , well - make land site endorse by a reputable company . If Google stay on committed to maintain and better the site , and kick upstairs it in growing online marketplace , orkut will continue its world - wide success .
For more on societal networking Web sites and related topic , see the next page .
