Orkut Lets You Communicate with Groups of Friends

Orkut, Google's social network that has a lot of users in Brazil and India, has received a major update. Groups of friends are more visible and you can send messages to the members of a group directly from Orkut's homepage. Orkut also updated search results pages and application pages, while testing a new platform for communities.


There are a lot of changes and it will be interesting to see if Google tests these features in Orkut before launching Google Me, a social network that will compete with Facebook.

One of the major changes in Orkut is the focus on groups. "You love your grandma and you're friends with your boss, but that doesn't mean you want them both seeing the conversation you're having with your friends the day after a party. With orkut, you can now build separate groups of your friends reflecting how you interact with them in real life." This is one of the ideas from "The Real Life Social Network", a presentation by Paul Adams, Senior User Experience Researcher at Google.



Google's Rahul Kulkarni mentioned last year that Orkut will change a lot. "The new Orkut adopts the latest Google Web Toolkit platform and includes features such as built-in simultaneous chat, photo tagging with automatic face detection and private sharing of photo albums including new safety features. This is the beginning of a new direction for Orkut, where users will be able to increasingly share and communicate with groups of friends from their lives."

Send Files in Google Chat

One of the few features that are available in Google Talk's desktop client, but couldn't be used in the web-based gadgets from Gmail, iGoogle and orkut, is file sharing. The missing feature is now available in iGoogle and orkut, but not yet in Gmail.

"Starting today, you can share photos, documents, and other files while chatting in iGoogle and orkut. To give it a try, just click Send a file... in the Actions menu while chatting with a friend (no download required). This feature is also compatible with the file transfer functionality in the Google Talk downloadable software, so you can share files directly from the web with folks who use the desktop version," explains Google.

You can send multiple files at the same time, but you can't select multiple files from the file picker dialog. Google Chat doesn't support transferring files larger than 100 MB.


Google Talk's desktop client is no longer updated, as Google focused on improving the chat feature from Gmail and adding similar features to iGoogle and orkut. Google Talk's homepage still links to the Windows client, but the first option is a plug-in for video chat.

{ Thanks, Niranjan. }

Orkut for Android — live folders, photo upload and more!

(Cross-posted on the orkut Blog)

Orkut is now ready to roll on mobile phones with Android. Now you can stay connected to your orkut friends wherever you go -- via scrap notifications, direct photo uploads to your orkut albums, and a phonebook synced to your orkut friends' phone numbers and status messages. Orkut for Android lets you stay in touch with pals through...

Orkut friends live folders
Simply add the list of your orkut friends as a live folder on your home screen, and you'll be able to browse through your friends list even when not under data network coverage. The live folder also lets you communicate (via call, scrap or SMS) with your friends in a single click. To install a live folder, click "Menu > Add > Folders > Orkut" on your Android device’s homescreen after installing the orkut for Android application.

Photo uploads to your orkut albums
Gone are the days when you needed to download photos from your Android phone to your computer and then upload them to your orkut albums. Now you can simply upload photos from your Android Photo Gallery. Just click "Menu > Share > Orkut" while browsing your photos in the Android Photo Gallery to get started.

Scrap notification
You will get notifications on your Android device when you have new scraps on orkut. The notifications will appear on your Android device notification bar; clicking on notifications will take you to your scrapbook page.

To install the orkut for Android application visit Android Market from your Android device and search for "orkut" under the social applications category. You can also directly scan the QR code below to install it. Note that the application is available only for Android devices running version 1.6 or higher.
Hope to see you on orkut for Android soon!

Posted by Deepak Sethi and Alok Goel, software engineer and product manager

orkut's New Conversational Interface

Google Chrome's homepage for Brazil has a screenshot that shows a new orkut interface. Google decided to use some ideas from services like Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook and make it easy to post messages and to see the messages posted by your friends.


Google's social network is popular in Brazil and India, but other social networks are trying to steal the crown. A ComScore report shows that "in August, Orkut's unique visitors in India dipped by 800,000 within a month, from 16 million visitors in July to 15.2 million visitors in August. On the other hand, Facebook grew its unique visitors in India by 700,000, from 7.5 million visitors in July to 8.2 million visitors in August."

orkut has never been an innovative service: many of its features were copied from other social networks. orkut's popularity in Brazil and India is probably the only reason why Google didn't discontinue the service.

Update (October 29): The new version of orkut, built using Google Web Toolkit, is now available via invitation. "We've concentrated orkut's principal actions onto your homepage, making it a one-stop-shop for nearly everything that you'd like to do. Now you can chat, watch videos, and browse and search within your full friends and communities lists without ever having to open a new page." Check orkut's blog for more information.

{ Thanks, Carlos. }

orkut for S60, now with photo uploads and picture galleries

When we launched the mobile (xhtml) version of orkut back in April on m.orkut.com, we were overwhelmed by its adoption.

However, Google always tries to build our products for a diverse group of users. Many people access orkut from their smartphones, many of which can support more advanced functionality. So today we are launching a new mobile orkut experience that is optimized for Symbian Series 60 (3rd edition) phones. The new orkut works on many popular phones, including Nokia's Nseries (N95, N82, etc.) and Samsung's SGH models. And we have added a bunch of new features including photo uploads, picture galleries, click-to-call, and quick friend searches. But the best part of it all - everything is available without the need to download any special client. Just open your phone browser, type http://m.orkut.com, and if you have a Symbian Series 60 3rd edition phone, you are good to go!

So go ahead and upload all those wonderful pictures you took at the beach or at the city's latest dancing spot, and then start calling your orkut friends to plan the next gathering.

And, don't forget to write to us and share your ideas for how we can make the orkut experience on your mobile phone even better.

Posted by Ankit Gupta, Software Engineer

Now available: orkut on your mobile phone

Posted by Hazel Mary, Software Engineer

Have you ever wanted to check if your buddy responded to your scrap about this evening's plans, but not been close to a computer? Do you wish you could pass the time on your long commute home by browsing through your friends' profiles?

Fret no more -- if you have a web-enabled phone and a data plan, just point your mobile web browser to m.orkut.com, and stay connected to your friends anytime, anywhere.

We understand that often your phone's data network isn't as fast as your computer's, so in designing orkut for mobile we focused on offering the features that are most useful when you're on the move, instead of replicating all the desktop features. For example, we've made it easy to send, receive, and respond to scraps on our mobile interface so that you can step away from your computer and have conversations on the go. From your phone, simply click the new "Reply" link to respond directly to a scrap from your friend. You can also read recent updates from your friends, view upcoming birthdays, look up and add friends, and accept friend requests.

After you try out orkut for mobile, we'd love to hear what you think. From the m.orkut.com homepage, click on the "help" link at the bottom of the screen to send us your feedback.

Happy mobile orkuting!

Marissa Mayer Profile On Orkut

Marissa Mayer is Google's Vice President for Search Products & User Experience. She has a very nice profile on Orkut, Google's social network. To see it, you need to have an Orkut account and since Orkut is mostly popular in Brazil, here it is:

general
birthday: May 30
here for: friends, activity partners, business networking, dating (men)
children: no
ethnicity: caucasian (white)
languages i speak: English (US)
religion: Christian/Protestant
humor: dry/sarcastic, clever/quick witted
fashion: designer, smart
smoking: no
drinking: socially
pets: i like them at the zoos
living: alone
hometown: Wausau, Wisconsin

interests
passions: Travelling, design, science, math, puzzles, hacking
sports: Volleyball, swimming, softball
activities: Skiing, golfing, running, waterskiing, flying kites,dance (ballet & ballroom)
books: Great Expectations, Atlas Shrugged
music: Madonna, U2
tv shows: Picket Fences, Life Goes On, Friends, West Wing, Nip/Tuck, Project Greenlight, Alias
movies: It's a Wonderful Life, Say Anything, Minority Report, Moulin Rouge
cuisines: French, Italian, Californian, Mexican, Thai, Vietnamese, pretty much anything other than Indian (curry gives me headaches :( )

professional
education: Master's Degree
high school: Wausau West High School, Wisconsin
college/university: Stanford University
major: Symbolic Systems
degree: BS
year:
college/university: Stanford University
major: Computer Science
degree: MS
year:
occupation: Software Engineer/Product Manager
industry: High Tech, Internet
title: Director, Consumer Web Products
job description: Lead product manager for google.com -- overseeing the user experience on the main search engine and the other consumer-facing properties (Images, News, Groups, Froogle, etc.). I manage a small team of associates who do much of the heavy lifting on the day-to-day PM work for the site.
career skills: Product strategy, management/recruiting, UI design, fostering innovation and ideas, coding
career interests: Innovation, design, user interface development, systems engineering

personal
deal match: Intelligent, funny/sarcastic, kind, flexible - willing to try anything once, passionate and excited about the world
height: 173 centimeters
eye color: blue
hair color: blonde
build: athletic
looks: average
best feature: eyes
turn ons: assertiveness, candlelight, dancing, flirting, intelligence, sarcasm, thrills, thunderstorms
turn offs: Smoking, apathy, insensitivity toward others
my idea of a perfect first date: Dinner, a movie, and talking until dawn
from my past relationships i learned: The best relationships grow out of friendship
five things i can't live without: Travel, my family, cashmere, Stuart Weitzman shoes
in my bedroom you will find: Silk pajamas, a down comforter (from La Crosse, WI :) ), high thread count sheets

Related:
Marissa prefers Pine to Gmail
She admits Google Video Store's launch was a failure

Criminal Activities On Orkut

Bloombers reports that Google may face a criminal probe for distribution of child pornography and racist materials by its users through Orkut, the most used social network in Brazil.

The lawyers say that Google failed to comply with a court order to turn over information on where the material comes from. They will try to authorize a police investigation of the Google's Brazilian unit.

"Orkut has become a paradise for pedophiles, who solicit sex with childen and distribute pornographic material", prosecutor Karen Kahn said at a news conference in Sao Paulo.

The attorneys prepare a civil lawsuit against Google's Brazilian unit to demand the company follow the country's Internet laws and pay a daily fine for failing to obey the court order.

Meanwhile, you can find a lot of pornography and extremism on Orkut. And a lot of kids also: more than 1000 kids between 12 and 16 years old.


Child pornography is an issue of great concern to the Brazil Government and Brazil has legislations against it such as the Child and Teenager Statute (Law No 8.069, on 13 th of July 1990), in which its article 241 says: "Take photographs or publish explicit sex scenes or pornographic images involving children or adolescents: – Punishment: 1 to 4 years of reclusion."

Related:
Google sued for promoting child pornography
Bush administration requests data from Google

Google + Nike = Joga

Google and Nike launched Joga, an invitation-only social network for football enthusiasts. “Joga bonito” means “play beautiful” in Portuguese

“Joga is unique, because it's an organically growing network of trusted friends. It is one of a kind network that focuses solely on a common interest around the game of soccer. Joga will help you connect to people who share the same passion for the game and also access exclusive content around athlete profiles, video clips and photos.”

Joga is based on Orkut, a social network very popular in Brazil.