orkut Blog

Private communities for your work or school

2008-06-05T05:56:00.000-07:00

Posted by Kuldeep Gharat, Software Engineer

Communities on orkut come in all shapes and sizes. Large, open communities are great for meeting new people and getting news on topics you care about, while smaller ones help you keep in touch with friends and people from your school or work. When we launched private communities several months ago , we let community owners decide who could access content in their communities -- all orkut users or just members of those specific communities. Recently, we added additional functionality to let you create communities that are only open to people who share your email domain. For example, I have an @google.com email address for work, so I could create a community that is only accessible to those who also have @google.com email addresses.

How does it work? First, enter the email address for the domain you share with your classmates or colleagues into the contacts tab of your profile. When creating a new community, simply choose the "validated - email validation required" option, then select the domain from the drop down box. Anyone who wants to join the community will first be required to validate his or her email address from that domain before being allowed to join.

A faster, lighter version of orkut

2008-06-04T13:08:00.000-07:00

Posted by Nishant Redkar, Software Engineer

A few weeks ago we launched a low bandwidth version of orkut that makes your experience on orkut faster. This is especially helpful if you are using a 56.6 or 64 kps modem, or if you are on a DSL connection with many users. How does it work? The low bandwidth version of orkut avoids downloading images unless you really want them, which lets you navigate through the site more quickly.

When orkut pages seem to be taking a long time to load, you'll receive a prompt that lets you switch to the low bandwidth version. Similarly, orkut also prompts you to switch back to the regular version if the pages start downloading quickly again. If it seems like your connection is slow and you don't see a message, you can manually switch to the low bandwidth version by going to the general settings tab.

Although some things are displayed differently in the low bandwidth version compared to the regular version (for example, your friends and communities will appear as simple lists, rather than photos), people who have tried the low bandwidth version have told us that they are sticking with it: it's saving them money (if they pay by amount of data downloaded) and is making it more efficient and fun to browse the site. So give the new version a spin -- it may save you time or money or both!

If you're in India and feel like a change of scene...

2008-06-02T06:55:00.000-07:00

Posted by Nishant Redkar, Navneet Nair and Narayan Kamath

Since orkut first launched back in 2004, the site has had a soothing, blue color scheme that we've all come to know and love. When we redesigned the interface last August, we switched up some elements but kept the blue theme. While some of you love it, we've also heard that others would like more freedom to customize your orkut experiences, just as you customize your profiles. Now you can make your orkut profile reflect your mood for the day or change the theme to match the current season.

We recently began rolling out 12 themes to a percentage of our Indian users, and these themes should be available to all Indian users by the end of this week. We're currently testing this new feature, and if we hear that users like it, we plan to roll it out for everyone on orkut and continue offering more new themes.

How do you switch your theme? Click on the "change theme" link in the top navigation bar or go to the"themes" tab in the edit profile page. You'll then see our gallery page, where you can check out all the themes that are currently available. Alternatively, if you visit a friend's profile page and he has a theme you like, click on "get this theme." When you select a theme, all your orkut pages will have this theme: your profile, scrapbook, photos, videos, etc. When other users visit your profile or other pages, they will see your selected theme.

There is also an option to disable all themes in case you'd rather navigate orkut all in blue. There are times when you access orkut from slow speed connections, and images on the site may take longer than usual to download. On those days, it may help to disable themes completely so that your friends' profiles load more quickly.

So go ahead, be colorful! Express yourself. Let us know what you think of the themes at our orkut help group.

App highlight: BuboMe

2008-05-26T07:01:00.000-07:00

Posted by Connie Zhou, BuboMe.com

[Since apps recently went live on orkut, we're excited to invite orkut developers to guest blog and tell us about their apps here.]

BuboMe is a photo application that lets you pimp your photos or your orkut friends' photos by adding themes and speech bubbles.

Create a Bubo

With a single click, your orkut profile photo is uploaded to the app and you are ready to pimp it by selecting a theme. There are nine categories with hundreds of themes to choose from. You can choose to be a superhero, a celebrity or even a cartoon character.

Drag thought or speech bubbles into your photo, type in the content of the bubble and then save it as a new bubo. When you are done, your new photos are displayed on your orkut profile as a slideshow.

The BuboMe photo app is currently available in 5 languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese. If you have friends who are not on orkut, they can still create a bubo by going to BuboMe.com.

What's going on next to our blog

2008-05-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

Posted by Natalie Schwartz, orkut team

We noticed the other day, after we added yet another link to the right-hand nav of our blog, that there is quite a lot going on over there. We thought it might be helpful to provide a short description for each item, so here is a top-to-bottom list of the tools and links we have listed.

Search box: search our blog for quick access to past posts
"Join orkut" button: chances are good that you're already a member, but just in case ;)
Site feed: learn how to read our blog's content through other feed reading services, such as netvibes, pageflakes, or iGoogle
"+ Google" button: quickly add our blog to your iGoogle homepage or Google Reader account
Archives: browse past posts by month
Email us your thoughts: pretty self explanatory, but please keep sending your feedback!
Orkut birthday gadget: add a gadget to your iGoogle homepage so you can keep track of your friends' birthdays without keeping orkut open all day long
Orkut demographics: we added this link in response to popular demand
Share your orkut stories: we have featured several of these on our blog and on the orkut site, so keep them coming
We've also provided links to a number of other products that are popular among orkut users, as well as links to dozens of other Google blogs

We hope this helps you take full advantage of the tools and links that accompany our posts.

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T07:40:00.000-07:00

Posted by the orkut team

To honor the thousands of mothers and mothers-to-be that we have on orkut, we've put this special doodle on the login page today. We expect that you've already called home, seen your mom, or at least sent her a scrap, and if you haven't already, get to it! We know you care, because our largest community on orkut is for mom lovers!

What's new with you?

2008-05-08T06:21:00.000-07:00

Posted by Luiz Genoves, Software Engineer

Are you headed off on a big trip? Want to share your excitement about a favorite sports team's recent championship? Inviting your friends to a party you're having tonight? Recently we launched status messages on orkut profiles that let you do just that.

It is simple, quick and easy: go to your profile, type whatever you want to appear as your status in the box right below your name, and it is done! Now whoever views your profile can view your latest news.

What do think of my photo? Make a comment!

2008-05-06T12:07:00.000-07:00

Posted by Natalie Schwartz, orkut Team

Since photo sharing is one of the most popular ways to use orkut, we are constantly working to add more functionality to our photo albums. Last week we launched a feature that lets you rearrange your photos within an album, and we announced that you can upload up to 10,000 pictures to orkut (have you taken full advantage yet?). Today, we're happy to share that you can now comment on your friends' photos. Captions have always been a fun way to tell your friends what's going on in your pictures, but sometimes when you're looking at others' photos, you want to respond to the captions right there rather than sending a scrap or message. To post a comment, simply type your response in the comments section below the photo and hit "post comment." Your comment will show up below your friend's photo. If you decide afterwards that you'd like to take down your comment, you (or the photo owner) can always remove it.

App Highlight: iLike

2008-05-05T10:42:00.000-07:00

Posted by Hadi Partovi, iLike

[Since apps recently went live on orkut, we're excited to invite orkut developers to guest blog and tell us about their apps here.]

iLike is an app that lets you share lists of your favorite videos, artists and music with your friends. One of iLike's unique features is that it lets you add songs and scraps.

To add song snippets as scraps, you'll first need to search the iLike library to find a favorite song.

To add song snippets as scraps, you'll first need to search the iLike library to find a favorite song. If you click "Send as a scrap," you will receive a simple line of code that you can copy and paste into any friend's scrapbook:

The iLike Challenge- how well do you know your music?
With the music challenge, you can test your musical knowledge and compare your score to your friends' scores. The app will play a short snippet of a song and prompt you to identify the artist. Challenge your friends and show your score on your profile.

orkut Super Users visit Google Office

2008-05-02T10:19:00.000-07:00

Posted by the orkut team

On Apr 18, the Google office in Belo Horizonte hosted a special event for some VIP guests: the orkut super users from the Portuguese Help Group. By bringing together these orkut experts and enthusiasts, we got some critical feedback about orkut and learned more about how they sustain our help community. Here's what they thought about it:

"The invite was a surprise, a dream come true, which just shows how Google cares for its users and how it's always exceeding our expectations. The atmosphere in the office is so exciting that you don't want to find your way out. As if we were orkut ambassadors, we felt our voice was heard when brainstorming about suggestions and usability issues. We hope we have done a good job at representing millions of users who have orkut as their favorite website." Alexandre Luis Vignado

"This day became a historical landmark for me. I enjoyed every single moment, from printing my badge at the front desk to toasting with Googlers during TGIF. I had to pinch myself to believe that I was visiting the company responsible for the most successful social networking website in Brazil: orkut! The environment is so relaxing that you can easily forget there's hard work being done in each of those cubes. But Google doesn't forget it and does the best to reward its employees with massage, hammocks, and game rooms. And the treats in the micro kitchen, of course! Visiting a Google office is like visiting a Google product: fun and quality everywhere! As you can see from my impressions, I don't feel I myself worked hard on that day, event though I participated in brainstorming sessions for 7 hours. Those were magic hours when we felt part of the orkut team and did our best to speak for all those users we interact with in the Help Group. orkut just became more admirable and promising for me." Cesar JB

"The invite was a surprise that only the visit itself could beat. While taking a tour at the office, we met some engineers who were having a meeting around a team member's birthday cake, which they kindly shared cake with us. Nice start... Even after working hard at focus sessions for hours, we didn't want to leave, which was perfectly fine for those Googlers who stayed with us celebrating TGIF and playing foosball. Cool, sociable, and smart people work there – and we attest, they're NORMAL people. :-) It was also great to meet in person my partners in the Help Group, Cesar and Alexandre. This bonding time will just improve our teamwork spirit." Luiz Fernando

App highlights: iPoke and Teen Patti

2008-05-01T10:41:00.000-07:00

Author: Sanjay Aggarwal
Company: Minglebox

[Since apps recently went live on orkut, we're excited to invite orkut developers to guest blog and tell us about their apps here.]

The Minglebox team is excited to develop applications that are tailored for the Indian audience -- iPoke and Teen Patti are two apps we've made available on orkut.

With iPoke, you can interact with friends using Indian lingo. Get caught in cricket with college buddies. Bowl a maiden over, fox a friend with a googly, or get hit wicket. Resume the chalk-piece war from your old school days. Missed your friend on his birthday? Smash a birthday cake on his face!

Teen Patti is an Indian version of 3 card poker, also known as flash. It is a must play before and on Diwali for many Indian families. Even losing is supposed to bring you good luck! Teen Patti is a multi-player game, so gather some of your friends online to get started.

Reorder and organize your pictures in orkut albums

2008-04-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

Posted by Abhishek Surana, Software Engineer

Now that we have more capacity for you to upload your photos (if you haven't tested the limit lately, you can now upload up to 10,000 pictures), we've also upgraded our photo album features. For example, until now, you had to delete and re-upload photos to change the order of photos in your albums. To make this easier, we launched a 'reorder photos' functionality which lets you organize your pictures directly in orkut. If you want to mix things up in your albums, select the album you'd like to modify, click on "reorder photos," then simply drag and drop your photos until you have it just right.

Privacy Feature Update

2008-04-28T11:19:00.000-07:00

Posted by [email protected]" class="EP8xU" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:verdana;" >Vlad Patryshev, Software Engineer

Thanks for all the great feedback on privacy, and we're glad to hear that so many of you appreciate our continued work to make orkut a place that allows you to be as public or private with your information as you wish. This week we are adding additional flexibility for you to manage the privacy of your testimonials, videos, scrapbook and feeds. In addition to having your privacy settings to be just "friends" or "everyone," you can now select also "friend of friends." We feel that this is a good choice for those of you who may wish to share your information with an extended group of friends without making it public to everyone. We hope this additional flexibility helps you manage your experience on orkut better.

App highlight: myHangman

2008-04-18T06:02:00.000-07:00

Posted by Ekalavya Bhattacharya, Contests2win.com

[Since apps recently went live on orkut, we're excited to invite orkut developers to guest blog and tell us about their apps here.]

myHangman lets you play the classic game of Hangman. You can choose a topic from the existing list or create your own based on your favorite movies, music, TV Shows, celebrities, or anything else that fascinates you.

How to do I play?

Save your man from hanging by guessing the missing letters and filling in the blanks to determine the right answer. Don't worry, even if you lose one round, you can try to rescue your man again in the next game.

What else can I do on this application?

You can also create your own game and challenge your friends to play against you. C2W, the company that developed the myHangman app, even has plans to add prizes - another reason to try out myHangman!

Now available: orkut on your mobile phone, on the go

2008-04-17T11:02:00.000-07:00

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 http://m.orkut.com, and stay connected to your friends anytime, anywhere.

We understand that oftentimes your phone's data network isn't as fast (or as cheap) 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 http://m.orkut.com homepage, click on the "help" link at the bottom of the screen to send us your feedback.

Happy mobile orkuting!

Apps are live in India

2008-04-16T06:03:00.000-07:00

Posted by Manu Rekhi, Product Manager

Today we began rolling out applications (apps for short) on orkut to everyone in India and will roll out apps to all orkuteers, in local languages, over the next few weeks.

Apps are integrated directly into your orkut experience. When you log into your profile, you will be able to add up to 25 apps to your orkut profile. Your friends will see all the apps you've added, be able to interact with them, and can add any apps they like to their own profiles.

Apps can relate to anything, from games and music to travel and books. If you're interested in learning more, we've put together a short video that explains what apps are and how to start using them.

Watch out for the "add apps" link in your profile over the coming weeks. We'll give you an update when apps are available to everyone worldwide.

App highlight: Catalog your past and future reading with ReadingSocial

2008-04-15T07:13:00.000-07:00

Posted by Tim O'Shaughnessy, LivingSocial

[As we get ready for apps to go live on orkut, we're excited to invite orkut developers to guest blog and preview their apps here.]

Have you ever needed an easy way to keep track of which books you've read, remember the books you want to read, and see book recommendations from your friends? ReadingSocial solves these problems by giving you a tool for organizing your books on a virtual bookshelf.

We created ReadingSocial because we recognized that reading books is an inherently social activity. We're always getting recommendations from our friends and family, and we knew there had to be an effective way to keep track of this information online. It's also interesting to browse the bookshelves of friends who have similar tastes as you, and you may get new ideas for what to read next. For example, if you love historical biographies, you can rest assured that there are others out there who can provide reviews of books you might consider reading.

Lastly, ReadingSocial on orkut is part of LivingSocial, which brings together people who are interested in a variety of different topics, such as books, movies, music, video games, restaurants, and beer. We'll be looking to bring more applications to orkut as soon as we can.

Happy reading!

App highlight: TypeRacer

2008-04-04T05:31:00.000-07:00

Posted by Alex Epshteyn, TypeRacer

[As we get ready for apps to go live on orkut, we're excited to invite orkut developers to guest blog and preview their apps here.]

TypeRacer is a typing game that lets you race your orkut friends, in real-time, using your hard-earned keyboard skills.

You start with a little car on the left side of the screen, and you type the given text to make your car move all the way to the right as quickly as possible. Your score will be saved, and your orkut profile will show how you rank among all of your friends, so challenge your buddies to a race! Even if you're not a great typist, your speed will improve each time you play. My own speed went up by 20 words-per-minute while I was developing and testing TypeRacer.

You can even race directly against a friend if you both log in at the same time and are at the same skill level. In the future, TypeRacer will make it even easier for you to go head-to-head against your friends in private racing rooms.

Oh, one more thing – if you have friends who are not on orkut, you can still play them as guests at TypeRacer.com. Happy typing!

App highlight: Viibee

2008-04-01T12:53:00.000-07:00

Posted by Michael Marth, Viibee

[As we get ready for apps to go live on orkut, we're excited to invite orkut developers to guest blog and preview their apps here.]

Viibee is a dating app that lets you watch videos -- rather than read profiles -- from potential matches.

Simply click 'Yes' when you see someone you like. If you both click 'Yes' on each other's videos, you can send each other video messages and take it from there.

Creating your own videos is easy. If you have a webcam, you can record new video clips right in your browser window -- no software installation is required.

The continued search for better search in orkut

2008-03-31T10:15:00.000-07:00

Posted by Eduardo Thuler, Product Manager

orkut may be all about your social connections, but Google is a search company at heart -- so we're always looking for ways to improve our orkut search features. Here are some of the latest improvements:

We are now making a greater effort to guess what you are looking for. In the past, you may have noticed that a more general search on orkut didn't always provide you the results you were hoping for. If you searched for a friend named Navneet, you may have found that the first results were for communities called "navneet." We've spent some time working on this and think you'll see better results more often now. So go ahead and try it here.
Just as with Google search, we'll now suggest a correction if we think you've misspelled your search words. You can see an example here.
We now take into account the country, state and city listed in your profile when searching on orkut, so you'll get the other Navneets from Maharashtra (if that's where you live), even if you have it listed as MH.

To help make these search improvements really effective, remember to keep your profile up to date.

App Highlight: iRead

2008-03-28T11:02:00.000-07:00

Posted by Harish Abbott, Ugenie

[As we get ready for apps to go live on orkut, we're excited to invite orkut developers to guest blog and preview their apps here.- The orkut team]

What you read says a lot about you. So what better way to tell your friends who you really are than to show them what you have read? And what better way to discover new sides of your friends than to see what they have read? You can do all that and more through iRead. iRead is a vibrant community of book lovers that lets you:

Build your virtual bookshelf by listing, rating and reviewing books you are currently reading or have read in the past.
Browse what your friends are reading and see what they have said about books you're interested in.
Discover new books that you will like and discover people who share your taste in books.
Have fun! Chuck a book at a friend, take a quiz, challenge friends, meet writers, chat & discuss books.

Whether you love classics or popular fiction, Dickens or Dan Brown, iRead is a place where you can find others who share your reading tastes and through them discover new books that you will love. iReaders have already added over 22 million books to their virtual bookshelves and submitted hundreds of thousands of reviews and ratings. iRead is excited to be part of orkut and to expand this community and make it more vibrant. So come on, join the social book discovery revolution!

The latest updates from your friends

2008-03-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

Posted by Luiz Genoves, Software Engineer

Do you have too many updates from your friends on your homepage? Are there certain friends you want to know more about, but others that you'd rather not see any updates from? If the answer is yes, I know how you feel.

That's why we're now giving you more control over which friends' updates appear on your homepage. First, organize your friends in groups. You can do that by clicking on friends in the header and then creating groups and putting your friends in them. To select which groups you want updates from, click settings in the left navigation, and then select the appropriate groups from the "updates from my friends" section. Once you've done this, only the updates of your selected groups will be shown on your homepage. If you decide you want to see more updates, you can still access all your friends' updates by clicking "view more" on the bottom of your homepage.

And if you'd prefer not have any of your updates appear on your friends' homepages, go to settings and click on privacy to set your own actions as private.

App Highlight: go4it

2008-03-26T11:38:00.000-07:00

Guest Post by Muralidharan Bhoopathy, Chronus Corporation

[As we get ready for apps to go live on orkut, we're excited to invite orkut developers to guest blog and preview their apps here. - The orkut team]

Whether it is a birthday resolution, New Year's resolution, hobby or just something you have always wanted to do, go4it makes it fun to reach all your goals with help from your friends (and others). You can create projects or objectives for yourself, then choose to share them on your profile and with your friends. For example, if you want to run a marathon, add this goal to go4it and let your friends know so they can support you.

If you are like many of us and haven't been able to get to all those things you want to do, wait no more. Get started on your goals, hobbies, resolutions… go4it!

The Global Community

2008-03-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

Posted by Ellen Spertus, Research Scientist

Orkut is all about community, and we sure do have lots of them: more than 45 million, covering all imaginable topic areas (and a few that defy the imagination). Owners can specify languages and countries for their communities, and I'm pleased to see that all of orkut's many languages and countries are represented.

The most common community language is Portuguese, with more than 10 times as many communities as the next most common language, English. Third most common is UK English, which was introduced in spring 2006 to distinguish between people who call the World Cup sport "football" and those who call it "soccer." Spanish and Hindi take fourth and fifth place, as shown in this table:

language	communities	largest community	members

Portuguese	40,460,878	Eu amo a minha MÃE! [I love my MOTHER!]	3,903,588
English	3,738,534	Nike	624,095
English (UK)	469,538	David Beckham	118,657
Spanish	186,323	Pra que serve o Orkut? [What's Orkut for?]	79,734
Hindi	43,837	Cafe Coffee Day	55,492
Estonian	37,199	Estonia	63,505
All	34,294	Caipirnhas [a cocktail]	311,487
French	25,118	Paris	21,772
Telugu	23,925	అబ్బా!!! ఛా!!! [Yeah, right!]	15,665

(Fine print: Afrikaans would have come in sixth, but none of the top communities were actually in that language. Similarly, none of the top "Hindi" communities had names or most of their messages in Hindi, and the top two "French" communities aren't really in French.)

In response to a suggestion, I also looked at which of the 28 community categories are most popular. We were curious about which countries are most represented in each category relative to their size, some of which are shown below. For example, Indians have far more communities in the Alumni & Schools category than even their large numbers would predict.

category	% of communities	some top countries
Individuals	23%	Madagascar, Brazil
Other	21%	Benin
Alumni & Schools	6.8%	India
Music	6.5%	Norway, Canada
Recreation & Sports	4.2%	Argentina
Romance & Relationships	3.8%	French Polynesia, Monaco
Family & Home	3.6%	Mexico, United States
Activities	3.3%	Paraguay, Pakistan
Fashion & Beauty	3.2%	Monaco

All other categories are below 3% of the total. The least popular category is Science & History (.4%), to the dismay of this orkut historian.

Until next time, enjoy community wherever you find it!

Happy Easter!

2008-03-24T14:11:00.000-07:00

Posted by the orkut team

In case you were busy egg hunting and didn't sign in to orkut, here's the doodle we posted.