Google Unleashes Orkut Apps To The Public

(Hat Tip: Devils Workshop and Orkut Plus!)

Unless you live outside of Brazil or India, you probably did not realize that Google has just opened the gates for everyone to try out Orkut apps for themselves, instead of having to change their location or enter in via the Sandbox.

(Orkut Developer Blog) We've finished our rollout of OpenSocial apps to all orkut users, and we've seen more interest in apps than ever before. Several apps experienced extremely high usage, but after utilizing the URL rewriter and other caching techniques the load on their servers returned to manageable levels. During the rollout, we saw over 5 million app installs on orkut and usage of the platform continues to grow. But we're not done yet...

In the next few months, we'll be focused on increasing the capabilities of the platform and enabling developers to build better apps.

This is excellent news to hear, mainly because I can finally claim the United States as my homeland (instead of Estonia--a country I have only seen via Wikipedia). Orkut currently has 294 Orkut apps (note: as of this post), surpassing the 100^th app mark two months ago.

Hopefully we will see more applications enter the arena, especially from Brazil, as there are a lot of "code monkeys" (aka super geeks) who are already building incredible software that makes it easier for users and businesses to surf Orkut.

Note: I'll be reviewing some more Orkut Apps this week, so keep emailing/scrapping me your apps!

And for those of you who emailed me previously, don't worry, I have not forgotten about you. ;-)