Must Have Orkut Hacks!

Millions of people around the globe use Orkut everyday for business, faith, friendships or simply exploring new hobbies. Some even attempt to use Orkut for romance, although the success rate is not as high as many would like it to be.

Unfortunately for those millions, Orkut lacks many of the features that other social networks have, but that has not stopped users from developing hacks, programs and scripts to improve Google's community forums.

Of all of the two dozen (and counting) different hacks and programs for Orkut, these are perhaps the best ones developed as of this post. And because my time is valuable, I will only list the top five hacks (in reverse chronological order, of course).

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In 5^th place: On-Off 1.0 (aka Orkut Online Status Indicator)

Created by Link, this GreaseMonkey hack allows users to notify their friends whether or not they are online, busy, away or have logged off for the day. This hack is not automatic (so users have to set it manually) but it may resolve the issue of knowing when to contact friends while surfing various communities.

Crowning feature: See if friends are online or off.

For a more in depth review click here.

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In 4^th place: Scrapboy (aka Orkut Instant Messenger)

Scrapboy is a software program developed by Assaf Koren which enables users to scrap each other instantly within an "IM format," as well as notifying users of new scraps (which Orkut does anyway via email). It also boasts several formatting tools making it easier to communicate.

It's crowning feature however is not simply being able to reply back and forth to your friends instantly, but rather the ability to be notified of when your friend receives new scrapbook messages, a feature Orkut has yet to offer.

Crowning feature: Friend scrapbook notification

For a more in depth review click here.

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In 3^rd place: Orkut Toolbar

Developed by Renato Rodrigues this toolbar (for Firefox) contains a host of formatting tools allowing users to customize text, emoticons, weblinks within their scrapbooks or community forums.

Its crowning feature is giving users the ability to post images within a forum for the first time, although only users with the toolbar will be able to see them. You can also post flash movies, although you must insert them "at your own risk."

Crowning features: Posting images and flash movies

For a more in depth review click here.

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In 2^nd place: Sorkut (aka Google Forum Search)



The Sorkut toolbar was originally developed by Rohit Kumbhar for firefox users. Giving users the ability to search within a specific forum, (a feature you would think Google would have already developed) Sorkut gives community Moderators, members and outsiders the ability to locate specific posts within a forum.

You can even simply do a title search with this toolbar, or a general word search within the posts.

Crowning feature: Search or Google keywords within Orkut forums.

For a more in depth review click here.

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In 1^st place: Orkut Cute (aka the Orkut browser)

This probably one of the best programs developed for Orkut thus far (although another program not mentioned here is attempting to de-throne Orkut Cute). Created and designed by Alexandre Pires, this program requires little "geek skills" compare with other Orkut programs.

Orkut Cute is a "modified browser" which allows users to change their background skin (without GreaseMonkey hacks), scrap all of your friends at once, post to all of your favorite forums at the same time and last but not least, inform you when new posts arrive in your favorite communities.

It also contains the basic formatting options, as well as a scrap notifier to let you know when you receive new messages.

Crowning features: Post in multiple scrapbooks and forums at once, change background colors, alerts you to new messages in forums.

For a more in depth review click here.

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Those are the top programs for Orkut. I may update this again in a month or so (as I have to test out several other programs and hacks), although I wonder if Google might implement their own version of these listed above.

If you know of any other programs or hacks that you think are better, either comment here or let me know on my scrapbook.