Did Google Renouce Orkut's Little Brother Joga?

A long, long time ago in a place not so far away, Google (along with Nike) created a site called Joga.

Joga, unlike Orkut was a forum dedicated solely to the sport of football (or soccer as it is called in the US). Google even promoted it on Orkut, although many users found the Joga ad to be annoying and thus found ways to block it from view.

While the site had both the cash and resources to make it attractive to the outside world, it was unable to gather a large crowd and it looks as if the site has quietly shut down.

Upon visiting Joga.com a user will encounter this image...



...with the phrase "coming soon" as if the site will relaunch again in the foreseeable future.

Even though Joga never gained the fame of its older brother Orkut, it did provide a unique testing ground for Google as most of the features previously inside of Joga (video's, large albums, etc.) were implemented within Orkut later on after the site was relaunched with a brand new look.

Whether or not Google brings Joga back only time will tell. But if Google ever does finally decide to dust off this web domain, hopefully they will bring back some of the humorous videos that populated the site, like this one below.

A Blog Detailing Joga?

Just a quick mention, but apparently their is a new blog following the world of Joga entitled Joga Bonito (which means "play beautifully" in Portuguese).

For those of you who don't know, Joga is Orkut's little brother developed by Google and Nikefootball.com to cover the world of soccer.

The blog looks really cool, although if you do not Deutsches sprechen then this site may be of little value to you.

Note: Adding this site on the sidebar underneath the "Orkut Related" category.

How To Remove The Joga Ad

Over in the What should Orkut do? forum, a couple of users have expressed their displeasure of Joga being advertised on their Orkut homepage. Axel leads the chorus by saying:

What the [*bleep*] is going on, there is a Nike (Joga bonito) advertisement at the left down corner of my orkut!!!

In the terms of orkut is written: "The orkut.comservice is made available for your personal, non-commercial use only. Businesses, organizations or other legal entities may not use the orkut.com service for any purpose."

IS THAT HOW ORKUT SAVES US FROM COMERCIAL ADVERTISEMENT???

Other users have asked about this, so in order to keep the screaming minority everyone happy, here is a way to remove the Joga ad on your home page.

1. Download Firefox. If you have IE, my sympathies go out to you.


2. If you already have Firefox (or have downloaded it) simply install this extension entitled Ad Block.


3. Restart Firefox and return back to this post.


4. Go to your Orkut home page and right click on the Joga Ad. A screen shot is provided for your viewing pleasure.





5. Another screen should pop up letting you know where the ad link is. Simply push the "OK" button and your ad should vanish.





6. If your ad does not disappear, try refreshing your screen by hitting "F5" on the top of your keyboard (above the number 6 key).

That's all you need to do. If later on you decided that you want the Ad back, simply go to Tools, Ad Block, Preferences and find the Ad that you blocked and delete it from the list (simply right click, and select Delete).

There is another way of removing the Ad within Firefox, but it also removes all images from Orkut which may hinder your efforts inside, especially if you are trying to find a date.

Orkut Advertises Joga Companion

(Published on The Social Networking Weblog)

It seems as if the Google team has decided to advertise Joga.com within every Orkut member's home page. Joga is a cooler version of Orkut and is a joint project of both Google and Nike. Having most of Orkut's features (as well as several that Orkut lacks) it seems Joga lacks the traffic of it's older sibling (and thus why Orkut members are now being exposed to it).



This download is for Firefox users only (sorry IE fans) and once installed it creates a sidebar highlighting various soccer scores between nations as well as videos within Joga. It also doubles as a Firefox skin which may irritate some users who have already customized their browser layout.



Users of Joga will probably find this Firefox extension useful, although if you are not into soccer as much as half the planet is then you will probably want to pass on this one.

Free Joga Invites!

Update: It seems they have opened up Joga for the masses. Mondine in the Google Community informed me of the update. Thanks!

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Some of you may have heard about this new Google-Nike joint venture--and then again some of you may have not.

For those of you who are curious Joga.com is a community base on one thing--football (or soccer if you live in the US).

Here's a description below:

Welcome to Joga - the community for soccer players dedicated to keeping the game beautiful.

Joga is a place to meet other soccer players, share your own soccer experiences and enjoy photos and videos from around the world.

Join us and help remind the world how the game was meant to be played.

Play beautiful

In my honest opinion Joga is everything Orkut should be and makes its older sibling look...ugly. With videos, authentic celebrity profiles and even a mini blog tool (did I mention the ability to change your background?) Joga will become the dominate forum of choice--at least for soccer fans.

If anyone is looking for free Joga invites (yes free...and you don't have to be a member of Orkut in order to join it, although others are advertising) all you have to do is post your request in the Joga Invite Pool and one will be sent ASAP!

See you there! And play beautifully!

Orkut's Cooler Brother (Joga)

Although I have been away for a while (work, family, life, etc.) I was fortunate enough to receive an invite into an Orkut style forum totally dedicated towards football/soccer.

Here is more from the Google Blog:

What do you get when Google and Nike get together and brainstorm? A sneaker-shaped server? A great TV ad for web search? No, you get Joga.com, an online football community that combines Google technology with Nike's unique sports content and access to players. Joga brings people all over the world together to celebrate their shared passion for the game of football (for you Americans out there, by "football" I mean "soccer").

Unfortunately Joga puts Orkut to shame, as it has several features that Orkut lacks such as the ability to change your background, built in weblog (very basic compared to Blogger.com) and last but not least no mention of the donut error of death.

One neat thing about it is the ability to view your Orkut forums through Joga.

For those of you unfortunate enough to be on the outside, Prashanth has screen shots...and possibly an invite as well (something I'll add to this weblog later on).