Orkut Apps For India, Estonia...Who's Next?

After previously launching Orkut Apps for Estonia, it looks as if Google is slowly opening the gates by allowing Indian users to test out its features.

(Orkut Developer Blog) Last month's prelaunch testing of the orkut developer platform brought a small set of third-party applications to less than 1% of orkut users. After implementing various improvements, tweaks, and fixes, we are moving into the first stage of the official rollout process by announcing the platform's availability in India, which represents about 10% of the orkut user base.

More analysis can be seen over at Devil's Workshop as well as the Official Orkut blog, who has provided this helpful video on how to add an app to your Orkut profile.





While its good to see more users being able to access Orkut (without having to visit the sandbox aka Orkut beta), Google seems to be ignoring Brazilians, over half of all Orkut users on the site (note: they may have done this for financial reasons, as having millions of Brazilians hitting Orkut Apps could put a strain on Google's servers).

Hopefully Google will decide to include them (as well as everyone else) in the next roll out--otherwise they may have a mini revolt on their hands. :-)

Google (Quietly) Launches Orkut For Mobile Phones

(Humorous Hat Tip: Rahul of Devils Workshop, see Note below)

After many months of waiting, seeking and pondering over whether or not Google would develop a mobile version for Orkut, it looks as if my wish has come true.



In order to access the mobile version of Orkut, users simply have to point their phone's browser over to m.Orkut.com and login using your Google account.

The mobile version includes most of Orkut's key features, allowing users to access their scrapbooks, check out their profiles, accept/deny friend requests and search Orkut via the Universal Search (adapted for mobile viewing of course). You can even flag profiles, a feature many spammers will probably loathe.

Unfortunately you can not view communities which is a bummer, as every attempt brings up the infamous "bad, bad, server" error pictured below.



Hopefully Google changes their mind in the future, as adding forums to the list would make Orkut much more fun place to surf (especially on the iPhone).

Launching a mobile version of Orkut is a smart move by Google, as it will help thwart users from having their passwords stolen by logging into a third party site from their cell phone.

On a side note, Google's launch of Orkut mobile probably explains why Orkut decided to launch a "low bandwidth" version of their site, an item that Jerry from Orkut Plus go into more detail about.

Humorous Note: I "accidentally" discovered Orkut mobile after reading this post by Rahul over on Devils Workshop regarding Orkut's low bandwidth version:

Orkut could have done this better by creating a dedicated mobile version like m.orkut.com or wap.mobile.com.

After pondering what would happen if I typed in m.Orkut.com, I was delighted to see a mobile version of Orkut instead of the dreaded donut error. So thanks Rahul, I owe you one! :-)

Update (4/16): It looks as if Google has finally acknowledged Orkut Mobile over on their mobile site (hat tip: Born to be Wireless).

(Google Mobile) Fret no more -- if you have a web-enabled phone and a data plan, just point your mobile web browser to m.orkut.com, and stay connected to your friends anytime, anywhere.

We understand that often your phone's data network isn't as fast 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.

I am still waiting for the ability to surf forums via Orkut Mobile. But until then, it will hopefully save time reading the latest scraps via iPhone.

Google To Orkut Forums: HTML Formatting Now Included

(Hat Tip: Orkut Plus)

A feature request long over due, it looks as if the Orkuteers have given their blessing on allowing users to finally display video's, images*** and hyper linked text within community forums.

In order for community owners to activate this feature, they have to first click on the "edit profile" link...



...then select the option to have your forums moderated instead of allowing anyone from Orkut to join your community.



Note: Users may also notice that by allowing their forums to be moderated, Google allows members to send "mass emails" to everyone in the forum, an option I WOULD NOT recommend admins selecting.



After that, scroll down to where it says Community Feature Settings (in bold) and check mark the box that says "allow HTML posts in forums."



After that, click the update button at the bottom of the screen, and your users should be able to display video's and post hypertext words without using Orkut's funky formatting tips.

***Note: For some strange reason, images seem to be able to show up in preview mode, but not actually post towards the forum (at least with me). Is anyone else seeing this minor Orkut bug, or is it just me?

New: Google Suggest Invades Orkut

(Hat Tip: Rohit Srivastwa on the Google Blogoscoped forum)

It looks as if Google Suggest, a feature that helps users narrow down what they are searching for online has been included within the Orkut search bar at the top, which you can see from this screen shot below.



Note:Rahul's email (along with mine) were removed for obvious reasons, as neither of us enjoy reading spam).

Unfortunately Google does not include the Google Suggest feature within the general universal search bar, which is a bit odd.

Exit Question: With Google suggest being added, are Google ads on Orkut not that far behind?

Must Have: Threaded Orkut Scraps

One of the reasons I love Gmail so much (note: yes, this is related to Orkut, so bear with me) is that Google groups together all of those messages sent back and forth between your friends (or businesses) into conversations, which saves you a lot of time when you are trying to figure out what you last said (or rather wrote) in Gmail.



While I do enjoy the overall layout of Orkut scrapbook, one thing I wish the Google team would consider is giving users the ability to group together related scraps, as it would make it much easier to communicate between friends (especially if you are receiving a ton of scraps).



Even though Google is probably busy with other projects (such as reinserting ads inside Orkut, not to mention receiving feedback regarding their Orkut Apps (which you can view if you are a citizen of Estonia), it would be great if they added this feature alongside of the million other things they are planning for the site.

Google Launches Orkut Apps...For Estonia?

(Hat Tip: Devils Workshop)



While I am underwhelmed over the fact that Google selected Estonia to test out their Orkut Apps (instead of Brazil, India, or even the US), users will now at least have the option of checking out the latest Orkut Apps without the need to register for the Orkut Sandbox (Google's beta site for Orkut).

In order to test these apps for themselves, users first have to visit their Orkut home page (which is orkut.com/Home.aspx) and click on the edit link located underneath your profile image section.



Note: You can also click orkut.com/EditSummary.aspx which will bring you there as well.

Next, locate the menu bar that asks you for your home country and change it to Estonia.



Then click the update button at the bottom of the page. Once you are finished, simply scroll over to the Orkut App Directory (which you can find over at orkut.com/AppDirectory.aspx and add any feature that you desire (my favorite thus far is iLike).

Currently Google is only displaying a grand total of 15 Apps, although you can find more over at Osocial.net (a site created by Victor).

Hopefully Google will allow other countries to test these apps outside of the beta site, not to mention introduce a few (hundred) more apps onto Orkut.