Programmers in India prefer Google's Orkut

Google's Orkut social network isn't just big in Brazil. It's also popular in India, especially among software developers, according to a new survey.

Despite Facebook's efforts to promote that social network as the platform of choice for third-party application developers, Orkut is used by twice as many software programmers in India than either Facebook or MySpace, according to an Evans Data survey of more than 300 developers in India. Software programmers in that country are heavy users of social networks in general.

Seventy-three percent of those surveyed said they had used Orkut, compared with 35 percent for Facebook and 32 percent for MySpace.

"Capturing mindshare with developers in fast-growing emerging development markets like India and Brazil gives them (Google) a strategic advantage going forward in further cultivating this very important community," Evans Data Chief Executive John Andrews said in a statement.
Google has released new domains specific to India and Brazil as a result of the popularity in those countries.

The independent survey was conducted in late May and early June.

Be careful when posting on the internet, you are an Indian.

Posting anything derogatory on the internet, no matter even if you are trying to be funny could land you in jail if you are in India. Your service provider, your favorite internet website and even your neighborhood cyber cafe owner will hand you over to the police if need be.

Try to find out the exact laws because who knows your arrest could be the first instance that specific law that will applied to the internet. So whatever is illegal in real world will apply to the internet. If you post a hate message, it is ok, at least as far as the the Mumbai Police is concerned. “hating (someone) is his/her personal opinion and having a personal opinion about someone, anyone, is not an offence as per the law”. But posting an offensive message is. And especially if it related to a political leader or an influential person.

Well, this week two such news items got a lot of attention. Firstly Rahul Krishnakumar Vaid was arrested and faces upto 5 years of imprisonment for posting a hate message (obscene message if news reports are to be believed) on orkut. A report-abuse link on orkut could have handled this issue but things went out of control for Google and they gave out the ip address of the person who posted the message. So next time you are emailing something to a dear friend or posting on a community website, remember that your message could be read by thousands and if anyone reports it to the police and it is found against the law, you could be the next Vaid.

One more celebrity who was blogging from his vacation home was Aamir Khan, the Bollywood star. His caretaker has a dog named after Shahrukh Khan. Aamir could not hold back in using this information on his blog and composed a blog post with this as the highlight. I watched this movie, and am sitting next to a river etc etc and by the way, Shahrukh is licking my feat. Shahrukh wants attention, blah blah blah. Well Shahrukh is my dog. Well, Aamir could not hold back and we doubt he realized what he was saying. After all, he was just typing on his informal blog. His fans did not like this not did others. People took exception to this kind of irresponsible and childish blogpost. Aamir Khan later apologized for his post.

As you write or post on the web, think twice before you click on the Submit button. Does not matter if you are a celebrity big shot or some unknown guy.

Source: http://www.newsline365.com/20081062/be-careful-when-posting-on-the-internet-you-are-an-indian/

Obscene Sonia post on Orkut lands techie in jail

New Delhi, May 21: A young techie working for a BPO company was sent to jail for posting obscene and derogatory massage regarding Sonia Gandhi on Orkut. The techie, a 20 something young man from Gurgaon who worked in this New Delhi satellite town had posted deorgatory and obscene remarks regarding Congress president and United Progressive Alliance chairman Sonia Gandhi.

The case that had come to the notice of authorities last year was solved after Google, the leading internet search and online advertising company complied with the request of Indian authorities to supply the IP address of the person who posted the massage on Orkut. Google owns Orkut a leading social networking site.

The youth who posted the obscene massage about Sonia has been disclosed to be Rahul Krishnakumar Vaid, a man in his early twenties who works for a BPO firm in Gurgaon, a satellite town of Delhi and part of National Capital Region (NCR).

The obscene massage that came to the notice of the police in Pune, Maharashtra last year was solved largely with the assistance of Google when it supplied the IP address of the person who posted the massage to the police. The massage was posted on an Orkut community called “I hate Soniya Gandhi”

A police official says that Vaid, who was working with PC solutions, an IT company in Gurgaon, had loaded the derogatory and obscene massage while working in his office in Gurgaon.
The accused was arrested by police from his residence two days ago and has been remanded to custody till 21 May.

He has charged under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act 2000.

Source: http://www.khabrein.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14412&Itemid=88

Google hands over user information in India

Written by Iain Thomson, vnunet.com, 20 May 2008


An Indian man is facing five years in jail for making an "offensive" comment after Google handed his personal data to local police.

Rahul Krishnakumar Vaid, a 22 year-old IT consultant, was arrested after posting derogatory comments on Google's Orkut social networking site.

Vaid was posting in a forum called 'I hate Soniya Gandhi' and was identified after the police asked Google to hand over his email address.

Vaid was arrested after a police raid on his house on Friday and has been charged with breaking section 292 of the Indian Penal Code and section 67 of the Information Technology Act.

If found guilty he faces a possible five years in prison as well as a fine.

The case highlights a curious facet of Indian law. The creator of the forum cannot be punished, since an individual's dislike is covered under personal freedom of choice. However, the information Vaid posted is classed as "vulgar", thus the arrest.

Source: http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2217063/google-handing-user-information
Vaid's arrest also highlights Google's increasingly tarnished reputation, despite its unofficial motto of 'Do no evil'.

The motto gained the company much kudos in the IT industry but, after Google's activities in China, many are now questioning its stance on human rights.

Google Finally Hands Over Alleged Pedophiles' Profiles On Orkut To Brazilian Authorities

Google Finally Hands Over Alleged Pedophiles' Profiles On Orkut To Brazilian Authorities

Google hands over data on suspected pedophiles to Brazil via the AFP reports Google has finally handed over profiles of suspected pedophiles to Brazilian authorities. As expected, Google did hand over 3,261 files with information about alleged pedophilia activities in Google's Orkut communities.
A member of the senate commission, Demostenes Torres, believes the data will provide enough evidence to incriminate about 200 pedophiles in Brazil. In fact, he said about 90% of pedophilia complaints in Brazil come from Orkut.

In any event, this step hopefully concludes a saga that has been going on between Google and Brazil over privacy of these profiles. Brazil has been asking Google for this data since March 2006,;just over two years later, Google has handed over 3,261 files.

About Orkut - My Religion

Orkut is a social networking service which is run by Google and named after its creator, an employee of Google - Orkut Büyükkökten. The service states that it was designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships. Orkut is similar to other social networking sites. Since October 2006, Orkut has permitted users to create accounts without an invitation. Orkut is the most visited website in Brazil and 2nd most visited site in India. The initial target market for orkut was the United States, but the majority of its users are in India and Brazil. [1]. In fact, as of March 2008, 67.5% of the traffic comes from Brazil, followed by India with 15.4%.

History of Orkut

Oekut was launched in January 2004 by search company Google, as the brainchild of Orkut Büyükkökten, a Turkish software engineer, who developed it as an independent project while working at Google. In late June 2004, Affinity Engines filed suit against Google, claiming that Orkut Büyükkökten and Google based Orkut on inCircle code.

Originally, its membership was by invitation. By April 2008, Orkut's user base numbered at around 120 million, next only to MySpace.

Scrapbook

"Scrapping" is popular among the Orkut community as a form of offline and online communication. In December 2007, the ability to pop up alerts immediately when a scrap is received was added, adding instant messaging-like capabilities to Orkut.

Orkuting in India
Of late, the number of Indians on Orkut has been increasing rapidly. On October 10, 2006, the Bombay High Court's Aurangabad bench served a notice on Google for allowing a hate campaign against India. This referred to a community on Orkut called 'We Hate India', which initially carried a picture of an Indian flag being burned and some anti-India content.

The High Court order was issued in response to a public-interest petition filed by an Aurangabad advocate. Google had six weeks to respond. Even before the petition was filed, many Orkut users had noticed this community and were mailing or otherwise messaging their contacts on Orkut[citation needed] to report the community as bogus to Google, which could result in its removal. The community continues to exist and had spawned several 'We hate those who hate India' communities.

Prior to the 60th Independence Day of India, orkut's main page was revamped. The section which usually displayed a collage of photos of various people, showed a stylized orkut logo. The word orkut was written in the Devanagiri script and was colored in the Indian national colours. Clicking on the logo redirects to a post by the orkut India Product Manager, Manu Rekhi, on the orkut internal blog. There has also been some media outcry against Orkut after a couple of youngsters were apparently lured by fake profiles on the site and later murdered.

On November 23, Bombay High Court asked the state government to file its reply in connection with a petition demanding a ban on social networking site, Orkut, for hosting an anti-Shivaji Web community.
Recently, the Pune rural police cracked a rave party filled with narcotics. The accused have been charged under anti-narcotic laws, the (Indian) Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropics Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS). Besides the NDPS, according to some media reports, the police were deliberating on the issue of charging the accused under the (Indian) Information Technology Act, 2000 perhaps because Orkut was believed to be one of the mode of communication for these kind of drug abuses.

The Cyber police in India have entered into an agreement with Orkut to have a facility to catch and prosecute those misusing Orkut since the complaints is in a rising stage.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkut

See also
List of social networking websites
List of Google services and tools
Social network
Business network
Social software