Orkut App Highlight: AdBhai

With the global economy in a downturn and companies laying off employees like crazy, many people are turning to classifieds in order to find work.

While sites like Craiglist (for India and Brazil) are a great place to start, Orkut users may be happy to know that they can simply install an Orkut app called AdBhai Classifieds (from AdBhai.com) in order to see what's available in their area (instead of browsing the unemployed or job forums).

This Orkut app was created by Naman,  the AdBhai Team, who seems to have done an excellent job of making this app "Orkut friendly" instead of merely inserting their web page within an Orkut App.

Users can also sell items to each other, and find out what your friends are selling/advertising as well. (unrelated note: Why are 3G iPhones so expensive in India?).

While this Orkut app may be useful for users in India, Brazilians and Americans are unfortunately left out in the cold (despite the fact that both countries take up the top two spots of Orkut's general population).

Hopefully we will see them launch a Portuguese version down the road, as this Orkut app may help out job seekers in Brazil (as the nation is unfortunately facing a recession now).

Update (10/28): Gave the proper credit to the AdBhai Team (and not just Naman who helped build this app).

Stand UP Against Poverty (On Orkut)

(Hat Tip: Rupesh of funduBytes)

Today kicks off a 3 day event to by citizens around the world to take a Stand Against Poverty and help make a difference in the world by 2015.

This event is being promoted by the United Nations Millennium Campaign, whose goal is to not only help spread awareness around the world regarding global poverty, but actually do something about it as almost 80% of the world lives below the poverty line (and at least a billion who are not receiving enough food).

Orkut lovers will be pleased to hear that there is a dedicated Orkut forum to this event, which users can access by visiting orkut.com/EndPoverty.

Be sure to check out this video below (which I saw being highlighted on the UN Millennium Campaign site), as well as spread the word (as the more people who are aware of the problem, the easier it will be to hopefully solve global poverty).

Orkut "Threaded Scrapbooks" (What I Love And What I Hate)

(Hat Tip: Chirag Mehta and Corpseofattic)

It looks like Orkut scrapbooks have gone "conversational," with Google making it easier for everyone to track previous discussions friends and family (which means I do not have to constantly visit my friends scrapbook in search of past scraps).

In order to access this feature all you have to do is reply to a scrap, and Google will show you a link...

...allowing you to view previous scraps to the individual via pop-up.

While its not the threaded scrapbooks layout I was hoping for, I am glad that Orkut is making it easier for all of us to find out what the last person said (which helps you cut down on repeating yourself twice).

Unfortunately I do not see this feature for on Orkut's iPhone web app, although I am hoping that they will consider adding in the future (note: if anyone on a Symbian powered phone sees threaded scraps in their web browser, let us all know in the comment section).

The only thing I do not like about this is that it "pops-up," in front of your face. I think it would be better if it would slide down from underneath (although doing so may be a bigger headache for Google, as it may involve more code).

Also if Google could add permalinks to Orkut scraps (sort of like how Twitter has it for tweets) then that would make this blogger really happy. :-)

Orkut Enhances Search (Plus Google AdSense Now Included)

(Hat Tip: Orkut Applications)

After launching Orkut universal search last year, it looks like Google has finally decided to place ads alongside their mini search application in order to help pay the bills (and perhaps keep the donut errors away).

While Google advertising on search is nothing new (in fact, its probably better than placing them within forums), one thing that really caught my eye was the face lift of the Universal Search (aka Topic Search), which makes it a lot easier to find friends, forums or conversations of random strangers.

While some users will probably find ways of blocking the ads (as not everyone enjoys them) I would rather have advertisers marketing on search, than upon our Orkut profiles (something Google has experimented with before).

Note: Although its great to see Google paying more attention to search on Orkut, I think the Orkut team should seriously consider adding search to the mobile world (both for the iPhone and Symbian powered phones), as people usually take their phones everywhere (although I can not say the same for laptops).

Google (Finally) Launches Orkut iPhone Web App

(Hat Tip: Prashanth on Google Blogoscoped)

After previously releasing a web app for Symboan smart phones, the boys and girls at Orkut have finally released a web app for iPhone lovers!

This is something that I have been patiently waiting for, as I was getting really tired of having to log into the basic mobile interface.

After surfing around the iPhone version of Orkut (which you can access by pointing your iPhone over at m.orkut.com) here were a few things I noticed.

Orkut Status






Orkut status, a feature Google launched previously can now be easily updated via mobile (instead of having to log into my computer).

While useful, I did find the fact that I had to manually clear out the previous update to be a bit annoying, although hopefully Google will insert "an x" (allowing you to clear out the previous entry with one click).

Instant Scrapping






Scrapping your friends was fairly easy, although after you post a scrap the web app does not confirm that your scrap posted successfully on your friends scrapbook (it reports a eternal "scrap is posting..." although your scrap should have gone through).

Viewing Albums






You can easily view the Orkut albums of your friends, which was a feature I enjoyed.

Unfortunately you can not comment on the images (something Orkut iPhone lovers would enjoy tremendously).

Call or Scrap






With just one click you can easily call your friends, or scrap them instead.

This is perhaps my favorite feature on the iPhone web app! (although I have to figure out how I can make Fring or TruPhone handle international calls as AT&T is expensive).

Other thoughts

While I am glad to see Orkut finally jumping in the iPhone arena (especially since both Brazil and India now have access to the iPhone) it would be great to see them launch a native iPhone app.

However if Google is too busy to create one, then this would be a great opportunity for a third party developer to create a premium version for Orkut users (as a few geeks did with both Google Reader and Blogger, not to mention Twitter as well).

-- Post From My iPhone

Update: Inserted missing links and categories (a feature I can not yet do from my iPhone--although the iGeeks are working on it ;-))

Update: The Orkut iPhone web app is mentioned over at the Official Orkut Blog.