Inside Orkut On My iPhone? (Plus Other Orkut Blogs)

Thanks to everyone who contacted me while this blog took a little "vacation" (with special thanks to Rahul over at Devils Workshop).

Before I dispense with the mobile news, I just want to let everyone know that the Orkut Blogs section (on the right) has been updated, which thanks to a new beta feature by Google will highlight the latest post from an Orkut Related blog.

These are blogs that I usually read daily (and would recommend subscribing to) so make sure you add these to your daily Orkut diet if you have not already.

• Devils Workshop (Orkut Posts)


• Orkut Plus (who recently updated to OrkutPlus.org, so update your links!


• Ortuk (no, its not a type, that is how its spelled)


• Beyond Satire (an Orkut Googler)


• Os Humanos Do Orkut (in Portugese--note the new skin)


• Orkut Champ (a newcomer on the scene)

There are other sites as well, so be sure to check them out!

Now, as far as the iPhone announcement goes, I am proud to inform everyone that Inside Orkut is now iPhone friendly!

Whether your iPhone is committed or jail broken, you can now visit this site over at m.InsideOrkut.com/iPhone/ (and if you have a regular cell phone, you can access it over at m.InsideOrkut.com).

Note: For those of you wondering, the mobile version is powered by Mofuse, (see my review on The Blog Herald) which for $3 a month will make your blog/site mobile friendly.

New Orkut Developer Blog?

(Hat Tip: Official Orkut Blog)

It looks as if Google has launched a blog site to keep the developer community (aka geeks) updated on the latest changes to the Orkut sandbox.

This is good news for users interested in either writing code (or playing around with Orkut apps), as it will help keep us all informed when problems are resolved by the Orkut staff (example: IE and Orkut are friends again).

Users can visit the blog site over at OrkutDeveloper.blogspot.com and be sure to subscribe to their feed (as FeedBurner is reporting zero readers as of this post).

Calling All Orkut Bloggers! (And Webmasters)

Lately I've been receiving a lot more emails, scraps and more emails of people asking about link exchanges.

In order to make it easier to list the various sites, I am asking anyone who has a blog or website focusing on Orkut to either email me or comment below listing the link to their site, as well as a brief explanation of what it is.

Example sites: Orkut Style, Orkut Proxy Tricks, and Orkut Apps.

Note: I am asking for sites/blogs that focus primarily on Orkut, not general tech sites. If you however do blog about Orkut on a tech site, and you want to be listed, simply post a link to your site with a category/label about Orkut.

Example: Devils Workshop posts heavily about Orkut, but he also posts about other tech items as well.

Instead of linking to him directly, I linking to his posts regarding Orkut instead.

http://www.devilsworkshop.org/category/orkut/

If you have scraped me regarding links, please email me again as Gmail is much easier to organize and search, which is mainly due to the colorful labels they just added to their platform.

Google Finally Launches An Orkut Blog! (Or Two)

(Hat Tip: Googlified)

Despite taking an eternity, Orkut has finally decided to communicate their thoughts directly to the blogosphere, and the first post belongs to the founder himself, Orkut Buyukkokten.

(Orkut English Blog) It's been more than three years since orkut first launched and now, at last, here's a blog to go with it (better late than never, right?). We hope that this will be a great way for you to learn about what's new on orkut, and get to know the orkut team. Here you'll read about new features, get tips on using old ones, and hear stories about how we work and who we are.

In the past you've communicated with us via our Help Center and Group, but we have not communicated with you as much as we would have liked. Since this blog is for you, we'd love to know what you want, so please let us know.

Google has also launched a blog for Brazilians in Portugese, which is great as half of their users come from that region.

So far comments are not enabled (come on Google, even Blogger has opened up their comment section, at least one of them) although hopefully that will change in the near future.

Orkut seems to be using Blogger's custom domain platform as someone seems to have occupied Orkut.blogspot.com. You can find the real Orkut blogs over at blog.orkut.com (for Brazilians) and en.blog.orkut.com (for the rest of us).

Attack Of The Fake Clones (On Orkut)

Don over on TechNiche reports on an incident where someone tried to create an exact replica of his profile.

Someone had created a fake profile of mine in ORKUT! The fake profile was an exact clone of my profile! and the only difference was the number of friends!

He/She, whoever it is, was very clever and had already started adding all the people on my friends list!

I did not come to know this till some of my friends started asking me why another profile when i already had one! They thought it was me who created the profile and thought it was one of those pranks which i casually did!

I was taken for shock when i saw the fake profile, luckily he/she had not abused anyone using it, else there was a chance that i would have been mistaken by my friends.

Don reported the incident to Google, and within a day they removed the fake profile from Orkut (is it me, or has customer service recently improved on Orkut?).

Because I was curious myself, I decided to search for fake profiles, and low-and-behold I discovered one! Ironically, there was nothing in the profile (no pictures, no friends, and no communities listed) so I think Google should have an easy time figuring out the real me from the fake.

Note: If you ever run into a similar incident, you can always report fake profiles to these communities as they enjoy exterminating these types of accounts.

Should Orkut Albums Be Merged With Picasa?

That is something that PuneetWorld is suggesting.

must say the photo gallery or photo album at orkut is terrible... ..its just too plain…photo album generated by orkut seem like webpage made by someone in 1995 it does deserve an update ...probably google should ajaxfy it like gmail .. or add some flash stuff to make it more cool. and convenient

if google too lazy to add few features to orkut albums ...least they would merge picasa web albums which somewhat bearable

Although I have no hard sources to report upon, I do have a strong feeling that Google may turn PuneetWorld's suggestion into reality.

I think combining Picasa Albums within Orkut (as well as some privacy settings along the way) would make visiting albums a lot more fun.

Inside Orkut Brazil (Belated Launch)

There appears to be another blogger focusing on Orkut on Blog*Spot! Introducing Inside Orkut Brazil!

Started by Luis Builherme, this blog focuses on Orkut (just like mine) but is in Portugese (which is helpful for our lovable Brazilian friends).

I came across this when Luis first scrapped me about the site, but have not had time to highlight about it until now. After coming across my blog over here, he was inspired to start an Inside Orkut for Brazilians.

And it looks like he is already providing some very useful information, warning users to beware of this Orkut copycat site that will actually upload a virus on your computer (perhaps Google should check this out).

I encourage everyone to subscribe to his feed, and if anyone know of any other Orkut related blogs out there, let me know by post here below.

Note: Adding this weblog underneath Orkut Related on the left sidebar.

Is Orkut Catching Up To MySpace?

That would be a good thing since it would put Google's social network on a path towards social networking king (as they enjoy being number one in everything).

Over on the Read / Write Web blog, Alex posts some interesting graphs showing Orkut sliding into the number two position.

Here is their summary of the competition between Orkut and MySpace:

From the charts we clearly see that Orkut is gaining, but why? The feature set and the user interface are not impressive. The answer has to be its affiliation with Google... [...]

But perhaps it is not just that Brazilian users dominate, but also the attitude and confidence of Orkut. [...]

MySpace is an undisputed leader on all counts, but Orkut is on the rise and it's moving very rapidly. [...] All and all it looks like the battle for the gold (MySpace, Orkut) and for the bronze (the others) is going to heat up.

According to Read / Write Web, Orkut has around 49 million users, which is almost half that of MySpace.

Although they still have a long way to go in order to catch up to MySpace, Google seems to finally be busy improving the Orkut servers, as one can tell by the growing list of dead orkut hacks and programs (hey, you either have to adapt or die).

Note: Google's rival Yahoo! seems to be jumping into the social network club and is considering buying out Facebook, a story that Inside Facebook is following very closely.

Update: Ionut, from Google Operating System posted on Google Blogoscoped that Alexa's numbers are flawed. Visiting HitWise reveals Orkut to be less popular than Friendster. Sad.

Another Orkut Blog...

...has appeared on the scene.

I have been following this one for awhile (although I thought it had died like this one) but Os Humanos do Orkut (or The Human beings of the Orkut) is a Portuguese blog detailing what happens inside Orkut as well.

I'm going to add it to the sidebar underneath Orkut Related and if you speak Portuguese I would recommend that you subscribe to its feed.

Why Orkut Is Popular In India (Chirkut)

Many of you have probably noticed the increase of Indian users within Orkut. I was puzzled at this myself, and after finding about a Brazilian word rhyming with Orkut I tried searching for something similar within India.

At long last we have an explanation.

(Ideal Web Tools) Chirkut is non-dictionary hindi word often used in Utter Pradesh and Bihar (two states from India) to praise a person for being loser, stupid and dullard. Recently our favorite politicians have accepted this word as an integral part of performance appraisal system (Interested people can read, "So what if am a 'chirkut'?" by Samajwadi party's Amar Singh).

AjiNIMC (the author of Ideal Web Tools) provides this humorous image as a visual example.



With that mystery now solved, we can now turn our attention to what is happening inside the Orkut forums.

Another Orkut Hack (Orkut Scrapper 1.0)

Update: Thanks Priya for the info! Corrected authorship below.

It appears that we have another Orkut hack that might dethrone Orkut Cute from its number one position.

Developed by Binny K Mathew Priya (from India), Orkut Scrapper 1.0 gives users the ability to see a live preview of their message before posting on their friends scrap book. It also adds a reply button within the scrapbook, making it easier to notify your friends. Here is a screen shot below via the official Orkut Scrapper blog. (click on photo to expand)



Their are a host of features associated with Orkut Scrapper including the ability to send invisible scraps, delete all your messages in your scrapbook (very handy if you are being flooded), although the ability to flood someone else's scrapbook may not make Google very happy.

Priya is also promising to add According to Priya (a friend of Binny's) there will be even more features such as the ability to change one's background skin as well as a scrap alerter.

For a list of more features (future and current) regarding this hack please visit the Orkut Scrapper blog (or the forum) for more details.

Note: Will be listed under Orkut User Tools on the sidebar.

Update (11:41 AM): It looks like Orkut Scrapper is no longer working after Google updated the scrap book. Sigh.

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.

Another Orkut Blog?

And it looks like this one has been blogging for a while! Entitled Orkutando this site offers a Brazilian spin of Orkut as well as some updates and advice. Written by "por Charles as," his latest post offers advice for anyone who is an Orkutholic. (Google English Translation over here)

If you if it catches sailing for hours in orkut without making nothing that it is useful, knows that you are not alone.
The community Skirt of orkut and goes to read 1 alert book that has more productive forms of if passing the time.

We of orkutando in feel them here in the obligation to support the movement. After all, we want one orkut full of intelligent people.

I concur.

The forum he points to has a cute baby picture as its image logo, but unfortunately the entire forum is in Portuguese, and I lack the desire and time to post about it here.

Pete, Your Fired!

Ha ha Pete, I am just joking! Don't delete this blog, as I love it very much.

Sorry for the delay, but blogger is experiencing some technical difficulties.

A small number of users are seeing a 553 Permission denied error when publishing to Blog*Spot. If this happens to you, logout of Blogger, clear your blogger.com cookies, and log back in. We are working to fix this problem.

Well, I appreciate the blog team for fixing all of the server problems. I don't have a clue on how they keep everything up, but hopefully they will work their "blogger magic" and make all of the problems go away.

Google Working On Blogger

According to the Status Blog, Google will be working on Blogger. I've experienced problems on some of my weblogs, so no daily profile for today. :-(

Orkut Around The Blogosphere

I was curious as to what others are saying around the blogosphere about Orkut so after a quick search here is what I found:

• Free Smiles: I started my blog with free gmail/orkut invitations. I still get a few requests for them, so I thought I would republish this...



• Kool Solutions: Looking at the huge feedback to this post from my friend fullo [102 commentis and counting ], I've decided to go public and advertize my membership to the Orkut network too. :-P



• Full(o)BloG: oggi mi sono iscritto ad orkut un esperimento di social network che pare interessante.. vedremo..
  
  ciauz
  
  ________________
  
  Translation via Google: today they are enrolled to me to orkut a experiment of social network that it seems interesting. we will see. ciauz



• MikeDawg's Blog: You know, I'm not one to beg for anything normally, and when it comes to computer related stuff, I'm usually in the loop to get things and such.
  
  But there is one thing that I don't have, and have been looking to get, that is an Orkut account, to at least check it out. So here it is, here is my shot at begging, if anyone has a spare Orkut invitation, can I please have it...
  
  Editor's Note: Invite sent.
  



• Solo Technology: A friend sent me an invite to join orkut this week. I glanced at the page, it looked "social'ish" and all so I figured I would give it a shot. After jacking around for 10 minutes or so and getting tired of "Bad server, no donut" type messages, I moved on...
  
  Well, he's persistent, and I got another invite tonight. I'm stubborn too, so stuck with it for 20 minutes or so and finally got myself added and even managed to get him added as a friend.

Most of these bloggers have found a ticket inside Orkut and with the exception of the last one, they all seem to enjoy the service aside from the infamous Donut errors.

But out of all the posts this one by Musings of a Wandering Mind was perhaps my favorite.

A little while after its release most of us were bit by the orkut bug!"how interesting can it ever be when compared with having a real time conversation with a far away friend using a messenger?" i thought...but once bitten.. there is no escape. When you are quite bored and bugged,Orkut can help you with the 'temporary whiling away' of time. [...]

The race is on for the increase in the number of scraps.. i hit my first 4 digit number a few days ago..MAN! am i jobless or wat!For those of u who have no idea what i'm talking about.. jus wait and watch.. it isn't too long before your bitten by the bug!

I wonder if Lakshana is a member of this forum?

Are Blogs A Credible Source?

Brent, over at American Politics, asks whether blogs can be considered a credible source.

Weblogs are becoming a big part of our internet world, but I still don't trust them at all for references.

There is no standard of journalistic honesty of credibility with blogs, much like early newspapers in the first days of the newspaper industry.

Blogs usually carry rumor and slander, and at best, a link to the actual story. At worst, plain lies.

Brent also suggests removing Wikipedia as a source. Joseph objects too Brent's claims while Тупарл sees Wikipedia as a valuable resource but not blogs. James reminds everyone of the CBS scandal by Dan Rather and the discussion gets more interesting on page two.

Orkut Networking (Kinda)

John Carney posts a semi-interesting testimony on his blog site about his experiences with using Orkut.

At that point, instead of meeting someone new, Eric found out something about me he hadn't previously known: I make soap. This interested him, and so I've sent him several messages today passing him links and suggestions. After hearing my description of cold process soapmaking, Eric decided that he's more interested in making some melt-and-pour soap with his preferred ingredients. [...]

I don't know that I'll actually try to network with anyone using Orkut, but it's something interesting with which to play.

Although a search for soap communities does not bring forth many great sites, users interested in using Orkut for business networking may want to check out the Entrepreneur Community (and if you are in the far east then the China Business Network forum may be just for you).