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. :-)

Will Indian Users Surpass Americans On Orkut?

While its a well known fact that Brazilian users dominated Orkut almost from the very beginning, it looks as if American users may find themselves in third place in a few months.

Since Orkut no longer provides demographic numbers (a feature I do miss) I'll simply highlight percentages from the past.

Here is a screen shot from August of 2006:



...and here is one from the demographics page today:



As you can see, Indian users are catching up, which probably explains why Google began allowing users to scrap in Hindi, enabling users to talk to each other without resorting to third party hacks.

Although I expect India to surpass the US, I have a feeling that Google does not want to lose the American market to Facebook, which is making even MySpace nervous.

Note: This may be the main reason why Google is releasing the Orkut API's next month, in order to gain some exposure among "us" Americans.

Sify To Shiv Sena: No Orkut Block For You!

Now I know that this news article was published earlier this month (which is like an eternity in "internet years") but I felt that with political pressure being brought on the Indian government to censor Orkut, government officials will take notice and follow the example of Sify, an internet service provider (or ISP).

(Mumbai Mirror Online) Internet Service Provider (ISP) Sify has refused to bow to the Shiv Sena's demand to block Orkut.com, saying the social networking website is the 'most popular' among the youth. Sify is the biggest ISP in Mumbai. It has 400 (I-way) franchisees in the city. In addition to that, over 1,000 cyber cafes use its services to provide Internet access to their customers. [...]

"Blocking a site is not at all possible and reasonable [from the moral point of view]. If someone is upset with the contents, they can take up their grievances directly with the [people who operate the] site," Pasha said. He also made it clear that cyber café owners do not have the technology to block a website; only an ISP can do it.

I am glad that companies like Sify exist, as there are already too many governments on our planet trying to play big brother for their populations. Although many people may be upset about the offending forums on Orkut (as there are several out there that I personally find offensive) I think censorship is the wrong avenue to take.

Ignoring "hate groups" is far more effective than banning the entire site, as doing so will only result in these offense groups finding another medium to communicate through. Unless hate groups become violent, the government should allow them to speak but use them as examples of backwards thinking in a modern day world.

Freedom of speech means freedom for everyone, and it should only be restricted when such speech causes false alarm or endangers people (like yelling "fire" in a movie theater or screaming "bomb" in an airport).

After all, if freedom is denied to one group, then what prevents that same freedom being denied to you in the future?

Has Google's Orkut Security Been Hacked?

Just when I was about to write a "How to get your forum back if its hacked," post, my inbox and scrapbook have been receiving attention over what seems to be the massive deletion of many forums on Orkut.

This has led many people to suspect that Orkut security has been compromised by a hacker, who seems to have stolen Google Admin powers and is deleting forums (and profiles) at random.

While there are users who have been able to steal forums away from members via hacking, I am having serious doubts as to whether or not Orkut as a whole has been compromised.

Many of the forums that are disappearing seem to be what some consider to be "hate sites." Although in America hate sites are pretty much ignored (and laughed at) by society, some nations seem to have laws against them existing, and go at great lengths to silence them.

Although it is possible that a hacker could have accessed Google's admin controls via internet cookies, a more reasonable explanation seems to be that Google may have given India police "too much authority" and it is quite possible that an officer is abusing their authority online.

(Boing Boing) The Indian Express and other regional media are reporting that Google's social networking service Orkut will cooperate with the Mumbai Police to share IP addresses of users who post "objectionable content" on Orkut. If reports are to be believed, the police need only email a complaint to Orkut, and Orkut will send back the personally identifying data, no questions asked.

The police are said to be targeting a number of "problematic" Orkut posts, including items that criticize various public figures in India, others that glorify Indian mobsters, and "anti-Indian words." The latter probably has to do with a group on Orkut called "I Hate India," which pissed off Indian officials so much, they decided to sue Google over it last October.

This seems very similar to Google's agreement with Brazil, and I suspect that Indian users are facing something similar. Of course, this doesn't mean that a hacker could not have stolen "admin powers" from a Googler (or even an Indian police officer which would be just as bad IMHO) although I think I still need to see more evidence before assuming Google's security on Orkut has been compromised.

Note: If you do have any evidence, please alert Google about this immediately, or if you are uncomfortable with contacting Google (for whatever reason) you can send me a testimonial (which won't be published) and I'll pass on word to Google anonymously.

Orkut Members Mourn For Minal

From Inside Orkut

After reports came in yesterday that Minal was among the missing, it was confirmed by media outlets, Facebook members and various individuals who emailed me reporting the sad news about Minal.

Minal's scrapbook has received well over 20,000 scraps in the past few days, and here are some of the best comments from well wishers expressing regret and sorrow to Minal, as well as to her family.

____________________

Patrick:

Goodbye MINAL PANCHAL
Though I never knew you at all
You had the grace to hold yourself
While those around you crawled
They crawled out of the woodwork
And they whispered into your brain
They set you on the treadmill
And they made you change your name

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never knowing who to cling to
When the rain set in
And I would have liked to have known you
But I was just a kid
Your candle burned out long before
Your legend ever did

GOD BLESS ALL

Sraven:

Like a bird
Singing in the rain,
Let grateful memories
Survive in time of sorrow.

My deepest condolences to ur family

Kaarthik:

You Be With God...

U and I may not be knowing each other...

But my heart pains when I heard of my Indian Sister lost her life in the US...

My heart pained a lot when I heard that a good talent was killed for no valid reason...

I assume, it might be that God needed a skilled Architect to build a new Heaven...

And you are the one chosen by him... All the best of luck for your new venture!!!

____________________

There were also a few text art images, ranging from roses to candles, all made in honor to Minal.

There have also been several forums established in her memory. In the Minal Panchal: God bless her forum Savio writes:

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.
And may perpetual light shine upon them.
May the souls of the faithfully departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen

My prayers are with you gurl, May ur soul rest in peace!!!

Other forums have been created, such as Minal Panchal -a brave girl where users are also expressing their condolences for her family.

____________________

Last but not least, here are some of her last scraps on Orkut (Hat Tip: an anonymous user and Anjali for compiling these on the original Minal Panchal forum.

Shilpi Gupta's scrapbook:

Minal: madam photo change itne jaldi!!! achche lag rahe ho!!! kisne khichi yeh pic..... i wonder

Payal Aggarwal's scrapbook:

Minal: pahoch gaye ghar.... ?

(earlier scrap)

Minal: amazing pic payal, wat place is it???? mere bina akele kahan gaye the???? kiske saath???!!!!

AMBITION's scrapbook:

Minal: hi anjummmmmmmm!!! how r u????? kya kar rahe ho aaj kal? wher r u working?? i m fine, first years coming to an end.... cant believe it! its nice getting bak to studies and now cant wait to get bak to work :) !!!!! it was very nice to hear from u... do keep in touch!

Rajiv's scrapbook:

Minal: thanx rajiv for listening (or telling your guest), very unlikely of u...... :)
i really appreciate ! waise hamare ceiling par thode cracks ho rahe hai.....

Bharati Karmarkar's scrapbook:

Minal: stalking????

(earlier scrap)

Minal: hmmmmmmmmmmmm..... wat?

Akshay Shah's scrapbook:

Minal: how r u akshay? lifes good at my end!!! first sem abt to be finished!!! unbelievable!!! howz work at your end???

(the next ones were from last year, December)

Minal: gr8!!!! congratulations yaar!!! so, how do u feel???? wow, its gona be quite a while for me to be thru wid my masters!!! wil be in NJ to visit my sister during the break.

(earlier)

Minal: hi akshay, how r u?? my sem was good.... got really hectic in the end with all the submissions!!! right now just relaxing and enjoying the break! wat abt u? how was yr sem?

Vishu's scrapbook:

Minal: hi, how r u?? lifes good... bas the same job search, course work :((
congrats for your new car!! and howz work????

Richa Walia's scrapbook:

Minal: hi richa! bahot unrichable hogaye ho!!!!??? (btw shruti gets 50% credit for this pj)!
saaw your pics today!!! they r really good. loooking very pretty! aur batao kya chal raha hai?

____________________

Here is a request to the general Orkut community. If anyone can recall Minal sending them a scrapbook or her posting in a forum, would you mind posting the links to those in the original Minal Panchal forum for her family and friends to view?

And if anyone is a close friend of Minal's family, would you mind forwarding these last posts by Minal to her mother and family, as I am sure they would appreciate this very much.

On behalf of everyone who has heard about this tragedy, my prayers go to the family of Minal, as well as to the families of those who have lost loved ones. God bless. :-(

Virginia Tech Shooting: Minal, Where Are You?

I do not know if anyone has been following the news in America lately, but if you have not heard there was a school massacre at Virginia Tech, which has shocked our entire nation, including me.

Although the media has released a partial list of those who were killed, there is some concern that one of the fallen may have been Minal Panchal (not to be confused with the other Minal Panchal) who apparently is not responding back to her scraps. :-(

(Times of India) An Indian student of the university who was caught in the shooting is missing, according to inputs from the student community in Virginia’s largest university.

There are many Indian students in this university. All other Indian students are safe, say inputs from the student community. [...]

According to reports from the campus, friends were searching for an Indian student, Minal Panchal, who has been reported missing.

Minal Panchal has her Orkut scrapbook full of prayers hoping she is fine and urgent pleas to respond and tell her near and dear ones that she is safe.

According to standard policy, the media and government do not release the names of the victim until the family members have been contacted. With that said, here's praying that she is still alive and well and that someone (hopefully Minal herself) can verify her safety.

Related: Two Virginia Tech forums posting memorials for the fallen.

If anyone knows if Minal is safe, let us all know please. May our prayers be with those families who have lost loved ones today. :-(

Update: Startup Dunia is pointing to an article over on IBN Live listing Minal among the dead. I have not seen her name on any official list online, (or other media outlets confirming her status) so I am for now assuming otherwise.

I've posted some messages on Facebook (popular among college students in the US) asking if anyone knows any info regarding her safety. If I find anything, I'll post about it here.

Update (4/18): I'm receiving more an more messages hinting that she is among the victims killed. She is not on any official list that I see, but people have put together a list on Wikipedia suggesting that she is one of the fallen.

Other Facebook members are also hinting at this as well. Keep her family in your prayers.

Update (4/18): Minal is now officially listed among the fallen according to media sources. I am going to do a tribute post detailing forums paying honor in her memory. I have visited several already, although if anybody knows of any I should mention let me know via scrapbook or in the comment section.

President Abdul Kalam Campaigning On Orkut?

It looks like India's President is using Orkut in order to rally voters to re-elect him for a second term.

(Hindustan Times) "I think this is a mass movement by the citizens for the citizens of India," Sujeet Shilamkar, president of PNM and IT professional, wrote in an email to HT. According to Shilamkar, Kalam is a "ray of hope". "In recent years, none of those who held this post have been able to devise constructive programmes of national and people welfare interests...He is the only man who deserves to the first citizen of our country," Shilamkar, 25, stated.

Online petitions and networking sites have been mobilising public opinion on various issues from the Jessica Lall case to reservations in educational institutions. With Kalam's tenure expiring in July 2007, the online petition aims to mobilise public support for an extension of his term. The idea is to the scientists and other fans of the President and put pressure on political parties to ensure Kalam continues as President.

You can visit the forum over here. Although it has less than 150 members, using Orkut to promote thyself may not be a bad idea after all, since many American politicians did something similar on other social networks.

Update (2/14): It seems as if my assumptions of Indian politics were fairly off (as I assumed it was similar to the way America operates).

Rupesh notes that this forum is being run by President Kalam's followers, and not Kalam himself, while Ambarish has informed me that India does not elect its President. Thanks!

Update (2/24): Corrected spelling mistakes of Kalam. Thanks again Rupesh!

Google To Take A Bite Out Of Indian Crime?

It looks like Google will be partnering with Indian police officers in order to locate (and prosecute) cyber-criminals by giving them the ability to report offences in a user friendly way.

(WebProNews) According to Google the tool will be easy to use and no special training of the Indian police will be required. The spokesperson also said "This is part of Google continued efforts to collaborate with the authorities, doing so in a way that of course balances users' interests and the need for the proper legal process."

I'm pretty sure Google established something similar in Brazil when child predators began using the forums (which caused Brazil to launch a lawsuit against them).

Although their is always potential for abuse, I am fairly confident that this system will be used to fight crime and not censor certain viewpoints.

What's With India, Pakistan And The UFLA?

I read about this several days ago, but have not had the time to post about it until now.

Apparently a discussion (or rather more like a debate) regarding Assam on Orkut has reached the India Gazette who quotes several people within the UFLA forum from last year (although the debate seems to have carried over well into 2007).

I decided to shop around Orkut to see what this UFLA debate was all about. I came across a forum called We Hate UFLA in which Bhargab explained some brief history regarding the whole event.

Historically Assam has been one of the most peaceful regions where various races and religions have lived in peace. Shortly after seven states were carved out of Assam in the early 70s, and towards the late 70s, the Assam agitation began. This agitation, started by students, sought to bring to the government's notice, two things:

1) Assam being neglected by the Central government in creating employment opportunities, despite Assam producing so much oil and tea,

2) Illegal migration by Bangladeshis and the Assamese slowly losing livelihood and land to them. These being pertinent issues, the whole of Assam supported the causes. This agitation carried on for about a decade, turning violent at times, and resulted in the Assam accord of 1988, when the Congress government at the centre, led by Rajiv Gandhi, made some lofty promises.

Assam was overjoyed and the student leaders became overnight heroes. Somewhere along the same time (late 70s) the ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) was formed; their agenda was similar to the students, except that they always demanded an independent nation.

Apparently things seemed to have spiraled down from there, with the current situation that is happening in Assam playing in front of the world stage.

Although terrorism in any form (in my opinion) can not be justified, at least there is some diolouge starting between the pro-UFLA and anti-UFLA crowds.

A long time ago my (former) boss told me that he didn't "want to hear your problems, I want to hear your solutions." Hopefully these two groups can come to a solution that pleases everyone, (at least a little bit) as war isn't the most fun of things to experience on planet Earth.

More Media Hype: Orkut Banned In Nagpur, India

I came across this several days ago, but I could not find one article specifically saying which cafe's were enforcing this "official ban" from the government regarding the warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji (which caused some protest earlier).

I suspect this article was written more to draw eyeballs to the screen, but I'll let you be the judge of that.

(Times of India) Due to the heat Orkut has generated in the past few days, cyber cafe owners here have decided to play it safe and told their customers verbally or through notice boards that logging on to the online community website is expressly banned. [...]

More recently, during the winter session of the state legislature at Nagpur, Shiv Sena MLC Arvind Sawant had demanded that the site be banned for 'obscene posts against Hindu women on the website'.

Since then, fearing legal hassles, cyber cafe owners have asked their customers to refrain from logging on to orkut.com.

The article goes on to explain that the order was supposedly given by the government to the internet cafe owners, although many of the owners are denying ever receiving instructions from the local authorities.

The cafe owners seem to be asking their users not to log onto Orkut, but ironically they are not:

• blocking access to the site
• banning members who use the site
• requiring a silly disclosure removing owners from legal harm

Could it be that Orkut is just way too popular in India and that censoring may affect their profits?

Indian Police: Hacking Orkut Is Too Hard?

It looks like law enforcement in India are having a tough time hacking through Orkut in order to find the real identities of terrorists and criminals. Is it me or does this strike you as a bit...ironic?

(Indiatimes Infotech) Indian security agencies are having a tough time in catching criminals and terrorists who are members of Google-owned Gmail or Orkut sites.

According to security officials, since Google servers are based in US and their IP addresses are masked, it takes a long time to get the real IP addresses and log details of culprits. Moreover, Google demands a judicial order to process the request which further delays the arrest of the accused, who may even have fled by then.

You would think that they would realize Google (probably) hires the best hackers around the world. Although I wonder if anyone inside Orkut would be willing to offer their services to the cops for a small fee?

India Censors Orkut...But Users Have A "Key"

This is really a sad day for India. A step back for the worlds largest democracy.

I have been following the story of whether or not India would censor Orkut, and it appears that India has taken a baby step away from freedom of expression.

Abdul Qabiz confirms this on his weblog:

I am not able to access orkut.com, it seems it has been banned in Maharastra (the state I stay) or entire India? [...]

I can understand the government's concern about different hate-communities on orkut but I am wondering, why can't Indian government give a list (URLs) of such communities to ISPs so that selective ban can be done instead of entire orkut.com.

Since I am not a legal expert (especially regarding Indian affairs) I would have no clue how the nation of a billion people could go about and resolve this via courts.

However, just because the door to Orkut is locked, it does not mean that there is not a key.

Users may be able to access Orkut via proxy sites, such as Math Tunnel (hat tip: Orkut Guide) until this problem is resolved. There are other resources being developed by users as I type, and if anyone knows (or is creating) access points elsewhere, post a few of them here (and spread the word to your friends inside Orkut via email).

Note: It's days like these that I wish an Indian ACLU existed.

Update: Users in Maharastra seem to be able to still access Orkut. It looks like the ban was in discussion, but not actually used (Thanks Rahul D, DK/SarDaar, Ajay D'Souza, and Vivek for the heads up on this).

What's Your Orkut Story?

One of the cool things about Orkut (that is if you live in Brazil or India) is that you can find long lost friends and relatives, and perhaps even strangers of interest.

Oormila Prahlad has posted her Orkut story over on her weblog. Here is a snippet of her post below:

I have suddenly become severely addicted to Orkut. Initially it was a twice-a-day fix but over time, the frequency of my addiction has drastically increased. Now I need it on an hourly basis. It is the natural fallout of being holed at home in a predictable routine with minimal links to the outside world. One discovers a small release that gives a definite high and before long, one is hooked. [...]

16 years back, while in exile in India during the Gulf War, I made it to the finals of the Kerala State Youth Festival Art competition. There, I was introduced to the art prodigy of our generation, Kavitha Balakrishnan. She of course, won first place and I was placed fourth, I think. Over the years, both of us were featured in the media quite often: she was the art prodigy and I was the writing prodigy. Kavitha Balakrishnan and Oormila Vijayakrishnan. Nice alliteration. We never met after that competition. Till two days back. On Orkut.

There are some other funny parts to her Orkut story which made it a great read (hint: read the whole thing). Stories like these are common in the US (well, at least with MySpace anyways) and I was wondering if anyone else had a similar story regarding Orkut?

Orkut Mobile Coming Soon?

No, I have no hard sources (or even soft ones for this matter) but I think Google may be headed in this direction--and if not they should seriously consider it after I came across this in my Google Reader.

(The Economic Times) Bharti Airtel and Google have announced a strategic partnership that will allow Airtel to bring Google search to the Airtel Live mobile WAP portal. [...]

"Mobile users outnumber PC users in India by a factor of six. The first computing experience for the majority of Indians in the next few years will be on a mobile phone." Said Manoj Kohli, President, Bharti Airtel.

If more Indian use cell phones than computers and if India is becoming more popular than Google's homepage then I wonder if a mobile version of Orkut is in the works?

Will India Ban Google's Orkut?

(Hat Tip: Binny, and everyone else who emailed and scrapped me about this)

I sure hope not, but it seems that some people were very upset about an anti-Shivaji within Orkut, causing some violence within a few areas in India.

(IBN) The Bombay High Court has asked the state government to file its reply in connection with a pleademanding a ban on social networking site, Orkut, for hosting an anti-Shivaji web community. [...]

The community had been blocked by the Pune police after violent incidents were reported in the city when its existence came to light two weeks ago. Though the community is currently inaccessible, the petitioner has demanded that Orkut, which has captured the fancy of many Indians, be banned.

I don't know much about Shivaji, (beyond wikipedia that is) although I do not see the value in banning all of Orkut because of a few opinions amongst the millions who surf the forums.

Orkut has proven itself quite useful as many businesses use it to employ workers, as well as people using it to find the love of their life (congrats!).

Although there are a lot of forums within Orkut that I do not agree with, (especially the anti-American ones) I do not wish for them to be removed simply because I cherish the right for all to express themselves freely without consequence.

Simply banning Orkut would not only encourage members to get around the blocks, but also be a major set back for freedom of expression in the great continent of India.