Inserting Music Into Your Orkut Profile

When it comes to adding music to your profile, there are several Orkut Apps that you can easily use to insert your favorite song for your friends to hear.

Orkut Apps for music lovers range from iLike, to Music Playlists, but one Orkut App that caught my attention was My Music (not to be confused with the other My Music, which syncs with your iTunes).

Like most of the "insert music to profile" Orkut Apps, My Music heavily depends upon YouTube in order to display (and play) your favorite song.

After installing this app, users can simply type in a song...

...and hit the search button (with the magnifying glass on it) which will bring up a list of related songs, artists and videos.

Simply click on the song that you want to hear and a new page should appear with the lyrics to the song that you have selected.

Users can then select whether or not they want to add the song/video to their profile.

If you click yes, a pop up should appear alerting you that your song has been chosen. Afterwards, click over to your profile page and listen to your favorite song.

Important: Since not everyone will enjoy your music (or will be allowed to listen to it, especially if they are at work), please be sure to turn the auto play feature off.

Two other cool things that you can do with this Orkut app is that you can insert an image within the background, or even hide the video.

The only setback to this music Orkut app (and all of the ones similar to it) is that it does not allow users to upload their own songs directly, forcing them to host them on YouTube.

If a company could find a way to allow users to legally select (and play) any song of their choice (even if their was an audio ad in the begining), they would probably find themselves dominating Orkut (not to mention other social networks as well).

Access MySpace, Facebook On Orkut?

With the social network wars heating up (especially between Google and Facebook), two new Orkut Apps have appeared on the scene allowing users to access both MySpace and Facebook.

Before one goes and rejoices how "Social Stream" is becoming a reality, these apps seem to allow users to only login through the iPhone interface of Facebook and the mobile interface of MySpace (so these are not the full blown versions).

Here is a screen shot of the MySpace Orkut App (which can be installed over here):



And here is a screen shot of the Facebook Orkut App (which can be installed over here):



Either way, these apps should make it easier to access friends who may not be as active on Orkut, without consuming too much bandwidth.

Note: As far as Facebook goes, this is the second time someone has submitted an app on Orkut (as it was previously working before mysteriously disappearing "over night" last year).

Google seems to be approving even more Apps on Orkut, although most users will not be able to see them unless they live in India, Estonia or have access to the Orkut Sandbox (note: sigh, no love for Brazil).

Over 100 Orkut Apps (Which Ones Do You Enjoy?)

Despite the fact that Orkut Apps are still only open towards users residing in India and Estonia, (unless of course you change your residency to one of those countries) it looks like Google is allowing more applications to be displayed in the directory, which currently lists (as of this post) over 100.

While the Official Orkut Blog has highlighted several apps for users to check out, here are some new ones that users may be interested in.

Superscrap



Superscrap does what the title implies--it enables users to send colorful scraps (note: only within the app) to your friends.

The app is powered by Potalz.com, and while it is quite useful for sending out mass messages, its only drawback is that there is no button allowing you to select all of your friends at once (or even select groups).

That aside, this app can be quite useful for those not fluent in geek, and is probably safer than using Orkut's mail system.

Note: Users can insert this app over here.

Amazon Store



While this app is not officially from Amazon.com (its from one of its affiliates), it may make it easier for Orkut users to find the perfect gift without having to leave the realm of Orkut entirely (which is really helpful for me since Father's Day is coming up in a few weeks).

Note: Users can insert this app over here.

Blood Search



With blood shortages becoming frequent in certain parts of the world, this app (powered by Mastiff) could potentially save a life (if not your own).

Users basically fill out their blood type, when they last donated and contact info (such as email, phone).

The only drawback to this app is that it only searches the blood type through your friends. Hopefully Mastiff will update the app that will allow users to submit their blood type to a public community while keeping user info anonymous.

Note: Users can insert this app over here.

Fotoflexer



Fotoflexer is one app Orkut lovers will enjoy--especially if one has thousands of pictures in their Orkut album (which increased the maximum number to 10,000 images earlier this month).

Unfortunately there does not seem to be a way to pull images directly from ones Orkut Album (an item they will hopefully resolve in the future) although users can upload images to either Picasa Web Albums or Flickr and pull them from there (or from their computer).

Note: Users can insert this app over here.

These are only a few of the many apps that I came across while surfing the Orkut App directory. If anyone spies any other useful apps feel free to share your opinions (or links via blog reviews) in the comment section below. :-)

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 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.

Google Unveiling Orkut Apps To The Public

After several months of testing, Google is planning on releasing the first batch of (hopefully) many Orkut apps to the public.

(Official Google Blog) Starting this month, we're enabling developers to make their social applications available to orkut users. We'll start ramping up to more than 50 million people over the next few weeks.

To prepare for this growth, we're now accepting social applications. For a while now, developers have been able to write, test, and play with applications on orkut. Later this month, however, we're going to start rolling them out to orkut users. OpenSocial developers can submit their completed applications (deadline: Feb. 15).

While Google is silent on the total number of apps being tested in the Orkut Sandbox, those with access can test (and check out) a variety of applications over at the OpenSocial Directory.

It will be interesting to see which applications make the cut, although I am hoping that the Orkut Facebook App is approved, not to mention the various chat programs (especially Google Talk, although the greasemoneky version looks better in my opinion).

Open Facebook On Orkut...And Vice Versa?

(Hat Tip: Orkut Open Social)

Although this is probably old news to hackers, it looks as if Vivek has created an Orkut app that allows users to visit (and access) their Facebook accounts while still logged into Orkut.



While users are unable to have access to all of Facebook's features, it does allow you to send messages via Facebook mail, as well as post on users walls (which is similar to Orkut scrapbooks).

Users can install this app by copying and pasting this url below into the field on the Orkut application page.

http://vivekjishtu.com/opensocial/facebook.xml

Note: This feature is only available to developers or users who have access to the Orkut Sandbox. Those interested in participating can sign up over here.

Some may remember a similar app that allowed Facebook users to access Orkut, although the only difference between the Facebook app and the Orkut one is the fact that you have to login to Facebook to view it on Orkut, an item Vivek can hopefully change.

Exit Question: With most of the major social networks joining the Open Social movement, I wonder if every social network will eventually morph into Social Stream?

Review: Orkut's Mobius App (aka Ask Friends App)

So if you have not heard already, Google has released an app called Ask Friends (note: What's with the Mobius at the end?), in which you can ask your friends random questions to which you will hopefully receive some worthy advice.

Google posted about this on their Official Orkut Blog, while Rahul provides instructions (with pictures) on how to add this feature over on Devil's Workshop.

Perhaps the greatest strength and weakness about this app is its simplicity. It is easy enough that even the non-geek can understand how to use it, although without any extra features people may choose to send out mass scraps, especially now that users can send fancy scraps such as video's images, etc.

If Google allowed users to ask questions via video (perhaps using YouTube's Quick Capture) as well as embedded Google Maps (which would help people out if they were asking for directions) then this feature may find itself to be quite popular.

Note: Speaking of Maps, is it me or is the Orkut Frind Map down?