What Will Orkut Do In 2009? (Any Takers?)

With 2008 coming to a close and Orkut celebrating the new year with a few new themes, some are probably wondering what the future may hold for Google's original social network.

This past year alone Google added a bunch of features to Orkut ranging from chatting (via Google Talk) to mobile (for regular cell phones, the iPhone and Symboan smart phones), to finally enabling private forums (a feature police may not like) as well as the ability to easily share images with your friends.

While we can only imagine what the boys and girls at Google will do as far as Orkut is concerned, here is my educated guess as to what Google will have accomplished by the end of 2009.

10,000 20,000 Orkut Apps!

Google has already crossed the 1,000 app thresh hold (they are at 1,668) and at this rate I will be surprised if they have not passed 20,000 Orkut apps (let alone 10,000).

Hopefully by then we will have categories to make it easier to sort/locate/organize apps by our tastes.

Forum Subscriptions (via Email or RSS)


Now that FeedBurner is apart of the Google family, I think we may finally see email subscriptions for forum threads (which will help keep community conversations--and forums--alive much longer).

I also predict that Google may enable RSS feeds for Orkut forums (similar to what Rahul has done with Orkut Feeds).

Raising the friend limit to 5,000

Google currently limits the number of friend connections you can have on Orkut to 1,000 (although their are various hacks to get around it). Expect Google to bump this up to 5,000 (or even better, provide no limits).

Video Chat in Gtalk (With VoIP to-go?)

With Google recently launching video chat within Gmail, I would not be surprised if Google decided to add this feature within Orkut as well (after previously adding Google Talk not too long ago).

Google may also try to experiment with VoIP on Orkut for Brazilian, Indian and American users in order to find another way to pay for the hosting/bandwidth fees of running Orkut (as simply slapping AdSense on everything probably does not pay all of Orkut's bills).

That is assuming GrandCentral (which Google purchased last year) is still alive.

A native Orkut Android App

For those of you who are new to the world of "mobile geek," Google has recently launched Android, a mobile operating system that can turn regular smart phones into iPhone killers.

Since the iPhone is ridiculously priced at 31,000 Rupees (or $640 USD) in India and 1,089 Reals (or $470 USD) in Brazil (note: its $200 in the US), Google will probably push for more carriers in both Brazil and India to adopt more affordable Android phones, which could result in the search engine giant creating an Orkut Android App.

Longshot: AdSense Revenue Sharing (for large forums)

Google will probably being experimenting with sharing AdSense revenue with forum owners, which could help entice owners to keep their communities not only active, but spam free as well.

While I do not think Google would (or should) roll this out to the masses this year (as they have to improve the security situation regarding hacked forums), I believe they will test this with some of the large forums on Orkut, and may eventually roll this out to the rest of the orkutsphere (if their experiment proves to be successful).

Any other predictions?

These are a few of my predictions regarding Orkut for next year, and if you have any other guesses, tips, etc. feel free to post them in the comment section below (and if you have a link, simply paste it below for the rest of us to see).

Orkut Releases New Year's Theme For India And Brazil (But None For America?)

With 2008 quickly coming to an end, it looks like Google has been rolling out its new holiday theme for Indian and Brazilian users (which makes sense as the majority of Orkut users come from these countries).

Here is a snapshot of what the Brazilian theme looks like courtesy of Gaurav Dua of Orkut Plus fame.

I am not yet seeing this in my profile, although I have not heard any of my American friends via Orkut status mention this at all (which could indicate that Google may be skipping out on their friends in the US :-( ).

If anyone else sees this in their profile, feel free to tease me about in the comment section below (as well as share you likes/dislikes about the theme).

Exit Question: Since Google seems to be geo-locking themes, does this mean that they are giving up on Orkut appealing to Americans?

Meebo Plus Orkut Equals Group Community Chats?

(Hat Tip: Kaushik of Blakut.com)

While there are many ways you can chat on Orkut (whether through Orkut apps like Unype or via Google Talk), this is the first one that I have seen that allows members of a specific Orkut forum to chat together in one single place.

Called Chat n Play, this Orkut App is powered by Meebo (which is a website that allows users to chat from Yahoo!, MSN, Gtalk, etc., without downloading any software).

In order for Orkut forum admins, (or even an active user) to enable group chat, all they have to do is highlight and copy their Orkut forum number,...

...then click on the Community Chat Rooms link...

...then paste it into the Community ID box as seen in the example below.

After that hit the Create Room button and watch as your groups forum appears. :-)

This should prove as a useful tool for Orkut community members (as it could help cut down on those short responses within forums).

Note: It looks as if this Orkut app already has a clone (as you can see from the name). Hmm...

Update (12/29): Corrected spelling of Blakut. Thanks Kaushik!

Happy Holidays (Plus A Mini Update)

As some of you may have noticed, I have been publishing very few articles across several of my blogs.

Due to the busy season I have been scaling back writing online, although I should be back to posting regularly after the holiday season comes to a close.

Until then, I would like to wish all of my readers a Merry Christmas, a Happy Channukah or a solemn Festivus (for you Seinfeld fans), and feel free to email/Tweet/scrap me--and above all stay safe!

--Darnell

-- Post From My iPhone

Dear Google, We Need Orkut Categories For Orkut Apps!

Now that the search engine king's favorite social network has gained well over 1,000 Orkut apps (1306 as of this post), I think it's time for Google to seriously consider adding categories to make it easier to find new Orkut apps to add to our profiles.

Although you can always find new apps from your friends (or by searching), this seems to be a rather inefficient way to discover new apps (as you may not always want to add apps based on your friends tastes and needs).

Google already does this with several other services that they own (such as YouTube, Google Books and even for Orkut communities), so they might want to consider doing the same thing for Orkut apps in order to make finding them a little easier.

------------------Example------------------

Lets say an Orkut user is interested in playing games at work (note: I would not recommend doing this unless you want to lose your job!).

Instead of simply doing a search for games over on the Orkut app directory, they could simply click on the Games category and see apps like:

• Counterstrike
  
• Sonic the Hedgehog
  
• Pacman
  
• Chess
  
• Zelda
  
• Checkers
  
• McDonalds (note: Not made by McDonalds)
  

Other users interested in music could click on the Music category and see apps like:

• Profile Tunes
  
• iLike
  
• My Music (note: there are two other Orkut apps with the same name)
  
• Phulki
  
• Tempo Trax
  
• Music Mazaa
  
• Sunoh.fm (note: see review)
  

I could list other similar Orkut apps but I think you would get the idea. :-)

Whether or not Google should create the categories or allow developers to simply apply labels to their apps I will leave to Orkut to decide.

But either way, we need a better way to organize these apps, as the last thing users need to do is sift through 10,000 Orkut apps in the future (which could easily happen at the rate these apps are being submitted and approved).

Review: Google Talk In Orkut (What's Good, And What's Missing)

After launching a limited version of Google Talk last year, I was very happy to see Orkut finally embrace a full blown version of Google Talk (which means users do not have to use greasemonkey hacks in order to chat with their friends on Orkut).

Google is slowly releasing this feature to users over the next few weeks, although I was fortunate to have my account activated this morning on my profile.

For those of you who have yet to see this feature live in your accounts, here is a brief review on some of the things I loved (and hated) about the new feature.

What I Loved :-)

The first thing I enjoyed was the ability to instantly communicate with friends while they were online. While "scrap chatting" can be fun, constantly refreshing the page after every scrap alert can become irritating after a while.

Another great feature that I enjoyed was the ability to choose to allow all of your friends to chat with you in Orkut, or simply limit it to certain groups (that you create within your friends settings page).

Missing features :-(

Although I did enjoy the Google Talk addition to Orkut overall, I was very surprised to see that there was no way to free the chat window from the bottom of the screen (like in Gmail).

While anchoring at the bottom is convenient if someone is chatting with one or two people, it may become crowded if one is chatting with a lot of friends (unless of course Orkut decides to add group talk which might make it easier).

I also did not like the fact that video and voice chat were not included, a feature I think many Orkut users would really enjoy (as hearing your friends voice and seeing their face is a lot better than typing in text).

Since many users on Orkut also use the site for business networking (or even to locate a new job), video/voice chat would allow users to interview live over Orkut without the need to set foot in the office (which could save everyone some money during this recession).

Future suggestions ;-)

Since Google Talk already contains a status alert within its chat program, it would be really cool to see Google integrate Orkut status with Gtalk status.

It would also be great to see Google Talk embrace VoIP on Orkut, since most of Orkut's users come from Brazil and India (with the US coming in third).

This would give the Orkut business community another inexpensive option to communicate with suppliers/carriers, as well as give Skype some much  needed competition. (note: Google already owns a VoIP company called GrandCentral, although they have yet to expand it beyond the US).

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If anyone else has Google Talk activated within your account, feel free to share your suggestions, experiences, blog reviews (with a link) or screen names below (note: mine is HiddenNook).