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.

More Evidence Of Picasa Orkut Integration?

(Hat Tip: Luis Guilherme)

Luis over at Inside Orkut Brasil has published some screen shots highlighting of what could be the beginning of Picasa Web Albums integrating with (or hopefully replacing) Orkut Albums.



Notice how similar these arrows look like when compared to the ones used in Picasa Web Albums.



I'm not seeing anything yet, although if this rumor is true hopefully it will be something more than a cosmetic change as Picasa Albums has a lot more function (and space) than Orkut Albums.

Note: Is anybody else seeing this?

Update (5/16): I see this in my Album right now, and Luis has informed me that Google is rolling this out to more profiles.

(Orkut Help Group) You asked for it, so we're adding a better way to flip through
somebody's photo album on orkut.

Instead of having to click on a photo, then click "back to album" to
get to the next pic, you can now just click on the arrows above the
pic to see the next or last one!

We're rolling this out a few profiles at a time, so just hold tight if
you don't see it yet.

Happy scrolling!
orkut Guide

By the looks of this, it seems as if this is nothing more than a cosmetic change. Alas, and I was looking forward to Picasa becoming one with Orkut Albums soooo much.

Rumor: Picasa Albums To Replace Orkut Albums

Although there is no official word from Google, it looks like the boys and girls at Orkut may be working on replacing the Orkut Albums (which really must go) with Picasa Albums.

(ZDnet.com) After Google added a new entry into their robots.txt file tonight (Disallow: /orkut/albums), I began doing some research into Orkut's photo album feature. [...]

When Google adds something to this file, it almost always means something is coming.

I sure hope so, as Picasa Albums would be an excellent compliment to many users, especially those gifted in the arts. If they do merge these two (or at least replace the Orkut albums) I wonder whether or not they will use the standard camera icon, or use Picasa's logo instead?

Note: Orkut himself seems to be enjoying Picasa Web Albums while visiting Brazil (hat tip: An Anonymous reader).

Orkut Rumors That Must Die!

Warning: This is a very long post, which may require a few donuts to get through)



There are many types of rumors in the world. Some of them are good (potentially at least). Some of them are bad (as in really bad). But there are some rumors that seem to be taken as the truth, despite the fact that they contradict all reasonable explanations.

This post is dedicated towards these Orkut myths, which have (in my opinion) lasted far too long on the world wide web. And since most humans love the number ten (probably because that's how many fingers we have) here are ten Orkut rumors that really must die (as in today).

1. Orkut Buyukkokten is the world's richest man: This rumor comes from the assumption that Orkut gets $12 every time someone registers on Orkut, $10 every time you add a friend, $200 every time you upload a photo and a crisp $1 every time you logout of Orkut. There are more details about this rumor over here.
   
   Now with Orkut having at least 40 million users he would have to be paid $480,000,000 from Google just from people logging in. And if you add images to that figure (which would include those uploaded onto forums) he would receive $8 billion if everyone just uploaded only one photo on Orkut!
   
   If Google even considered paying Orkut half this amount, Google's stockholders would revolt (not to mention the entire company would go bankrupt).



2. Spam your friends and hit F8 (aka the "Crush List" rumor): This one seems to be traveling via Orkut mail, and goes along the lines of "if you send out an email to all of your friends, hit F8 you will see who has a crush on you." More info over here (hat tip: aniNosaintlife).
   
   Sometimes this rumor has some java code attached to it, sometimes it does not, but either way it DOES NOT work (so please stop emailing/scraping me about this).



3. If you do not send out a scrap, Orkut will delete your account: This rumor has gone down some, but when I first blogged about this people kept sending me scraps about this, despite my attempts to inform them to the contrary.
   
   It got so bad (with people emailing me about this) that I cried whined to Google regarding this problem, and they were quickly able to put this rumor to rest.



4. Google is (in the future) going to charge users for Orkut: This would not only kill Orkut immediately (as it is one of many social networks online) but would not really be apart of Google's style, which generally loves giving away free software (and sometimes a premium version as well).
   
   Google has debunked this rumor, so hopefully we will not see this rumor again in our lifetime.



5. Inside Orkut is an official blog of Google: Although this rumor causes me to laugh, I want to make it very clear- Inside Orkut is NOT an official blog of Google, but a personal fan blog started by Darnell Clayton (that being me).
   
   I think I am partially to blame for this error, when I decided to mimic the layout of the Google Video Blog. Despite the disclaimer at the bottom of the page (on the left sidebar), I kept getting questions asking if I was a Google employee, was this an official blog of Google, etc., etc.
   
   I finally decided to change the layout as the last thing I wanted was lawsuit from Google (as I hear they have some pretty fierce lawyers) not to mention the deletion of this blog.
   
   Hopefully my upgrade to the Blogger Custom domain platform (removing the blog*spot) will put this rumor to rest.
   
   Note: If you would like to check out the blog of a REAL Orkut engineer, then Beyond Satire may be the blog for you.
   



6. Orkut was bought by Google, just like Picasa, Blogger and YouTube: Actually Orkut was created by Orkut, who was (and currently is) a Google employee.
   
   Apparently it seems that Google approached Orkut to create a social networking site after being spurned by Friendster (hat tip: Marketing Vox) and although the site never took off in America, Indians and Brazilians have made excellent use of the place.



7. Orkut isn't really apart of Google because its not listed on the "More Page": Despite never making it to the Google hall of fame (i.e. the "more page"), Orkut is as much as apart of Google as Gmail, Blogger, Picasa, and even YouTube.
   
   If you still don't believe me, you can try checking out their about page (although the Google account required to login should be an obvious hint).
   
   Why Orkut isn't listed on the "more page," is something I have no clue about, but hopefully a Googler can correct this (as Orkut is no longer a red headed step child).
   
   Update (4/29): Google finally added Orkut to "the more page." See this post for details.



8. Orkut is Google's way of spying on its users: I think this rumor was spun from a post by Jeremy from Yahoo!, in which some people refuse to use Orkut which they see as even worse than Gmail.
   
   Google does collect information on its users (just like Yahoo!, Microsoft, MySpace, your own local government unless you live in Antarctica) for the purposes of serving up relevant ads alongside your searches or inside your email (and even on Orkut).
   
   For those worried about Google revealing your data to say, a hostile government should have nothing to worry about as Google defends the rights of its users, even against American courts.



9. Terrorist organizations receiving funding from the ads on Orkut: This humorous hoax was started (or at least popularized) by the Search Engine Journal and was picked up by many bloggers as fact.
   
   I at first laughed after hearing about this (even Ionut had a good time with this silly story) although others took this as another reason why Google was evil (note: ironically, many of those Google hate sites either use a Google product or host Ad Sense, which IMHO is rather odd).
   
   This isn't true because:
   
   a) Only Google makes money off of the ads on Orkut, as these ads display whether users like them or not.
   
   b) If Google even sent one dollar towards a terrorist organization, all of their assets would be frozen by international governments and the search engine king would quickly go bankrupt.
   
   Despite the logic listed above, people continue to list Google as Osama bin Laden's friend.



10. Orkut Buyukkokten is running for President in Brazil/India: No, this isn't a rumor (as I just made this one). However with Orkut popularity in Brazil, I'm pretty sure he could lick the competition. ;-)

For those of you who survived at the end of this post, you have my sympathies. But I am interested, what rumors have you heard recently (or in the past) regarding Orkut? And do you still encounter people who believe these digital tales?

Update: Corrected spelling of aniNosaintlife source link.

Is Picasa Advertising On Orkut?

Ironically, this seems very familiar to what Joga did last year. The only difference is that the Picasa team seems to be placing the ad in a much more convenient place inside of the Orkut Albums. Dreamchaser gives the details...

(Dreamchaser's Blog) [W]hile I was checking out one of my friends profile page I wanted to check her album and when I navigated to the album page right beneath the display picture next to options I could see a new ad pop in which read "Find, Edit and share your photos - Google's photo organizer" which when clicked would re-direct to Picasa's Home Page. [...]

The integration of such ads at Album Page is a really good marketting [sic] way to push Google's product that specilizes in Photo organizing and editing. Way to go google!

You can see a larger screen shot over here.

I have not seen the ad yet, although to be honest I do not frequently scroll through Orkut albums, unless of course people are hosting some recent drawings they have done (yeah, I'm an art fan).

Although it is cool to see Picasa advertising inside Orkut, what would really make my day is if Google substituted the Orkut albums for Picasa Albums, as users would be able to actually comment, share and edit each other images without having to download them manually.

Orkut Under Construction Again?

Sigh...and I was just about to check my scrapbook too!

Perhaps that explains why I was receiving those mysterious donut errors today. ;-)

I guess I'll be blogging elsewhere for now (or perhaps at least on my personal journal).

With us barely in 2007, I think I am going to start some rumors (more like suggestions) on the next upcoming features on Orkut.

If I could have five features for Orkut, it would be:

• Orkut for my mobile phone.
• Scrapbook viewable to friends only.
• Integrate Picasa Web Albums with Orkut Albums.
• RSS feeds (aka site feeds) for communities.
• Personalize your profile page (without GreaseMonkey hacks)

These are my suggestions--does anybody have any others?

Note: Because the commenting system on Blogger is acting up, I am temporarily removing the word verification, although I'll be moderating comments to filter out spam (you gotta love them--they teach you patience).

Update: Comment system (as well as Orkut) are working again. Yeah!

Will Google Merge Orkut With JotSpot?

(Hat Tip: Googling Google)

It looks like Google has some major plans for Orkut in 2007, as the company may be planning to integrate JotSpot within Orkut.

(Internet News) "This year has been about getting our toe in the water. [Next year] will be about taking a lot more steps forward," said Girouard. [...]

Girouard also indicated that Google may use the fruits of its acquisitions of Web 2.0 companies such as wiki-builder Jotspot and social-networking site Orkut to build the framework for a collaboration platform.

For those of you who don't know, JotSpot is a wiki company (like Wikipedia but better) who allow users to create "rich web-based spreadsheets, calendars, documents and photo galleries." (via JotSpot FAQ)

Google bought out JotSpot awhile ago, and may be using them to help unify all of the Googlie services (Calendar, Picasa Web Albums, Docs & Spreadsheets, etc.) within Orkut.

If this is true (as the article is hinting) then Orkut may quickly become a favorite tool for businesses, artists and web geeks like me. ;-)

Note: I wonder if these added features will be enough to dethrone MySpace in the US?

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?

More Upcoming Features For Orkut?

Ionut over on the Google Operating System points towards some more upcoming features within Orkut.

orkut SMS

With orkut SMS you can send and receive scraps with your mobile phone as well as other cool stuff. But first you need to register your mobile phone to use orkut.

Photo Tagging

You can tag your friends in photos. To create a photo tag, click and drag the mouse to select a friend.

The send scraps via mobile phone sounds like a great idea, although some fear this could be abused by spammers (doubtful as Google could simply ban your phone from its network).

The photo tag also seems to be very interesting, although isn't that wandering into Picasa territory?

Orkut Adding Google Talk Next Week?

Google may (as in probably) be adding Google Talk within the Orkut interface allowing us "Orkuteers" to chat instantly to each other as well as see who is online.

(Light Reading) The company says its Google Talk and Orkut development teams are busy putting the finishing touches on the integration. The announcement will likely be made sometime next week. [...]

"We noticed that a lot of people that were using Orkut also had their GTalk client open at the same time," says Google spokeswoman Courtney Hohne.

Orkut members will be able to text message and voice chat with other members of the community if they choose to communicate in that way. Google believes the new functions might add a sense of immediacy to member interaction on the social networking site.

It looks as if the previous rumors regarding Gtalk and Orkut may have some weight to them after all. Installing Gtalk will solve two problems at once, as it will not only create a chat program within, but also an online status indicator as well.

Of course, I hope Google gives users the option to turn this off (like in Gmail) or even better, call users via audio within the site (not to mention potential advertisers as well).

Note: It would be cool if Google integrated this within their Friend Maps page, as users would then be able to see which of their friends are online half way around the world.

Why Orkut And Dodgeball Don't Mix

Over on Read/Write Web, their is much discussion on the possibility of Dodgeball and Orkut possibly merging together.

Although both are social networking services owned by Google, Dodgeball is available to urban America only while Orkut is global in scope.

If Dodgeball became global this would be a match made in cyber heaven, but until then it would probably be better if Gtalk and Dodgeball merged, than Orkut.

Is Google Adding Gtalk Inside Orkut?

Gee Google it's about time you considered adding this to Orkut!

More from Mercury News:

(Mercury News) Mountain View Internet giant Google -- the one company we're more obsessed with here than Apple -- said it's expanding its Google Talk service to more of its own products. It will start by linking Google Talk to its Orkut social-networking site, and is considering linking the Internet phone and instant-messaging service to its online word processor and spreadsheet. Google Talk lags far behind similar offerings from Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft.

Having Google integrate Gtalk within Orkut will help knock out two items users have been asking for: an online status indicator (since the previous hack no longer works ever since Orkut updated its servers) and an Orkut chat program.

Although Scrapboy provides a nice alternative, having an official chat program will make Orkut "all the sweeter."

Update: It looks like "a chat program" may be on the drawing boards of Orkut.

Is Orkut Displaying Google Ads?

I received an email from Anupam about a week ago claiming that he was seeing ads within Orkut. I first doubted this, since Google does not advertise within Orkut (with the Joga companion being the exception).

My first suspicion was that these ads were being displayed via a GreaseMonkey or Firefox hack, (something Google would not enjoy) but after disabling these hacks, the Anupam sent me some screen shots of what he saw.







Apparently these appear to be Google ads although Anupam is the only one (to my knowledge) able to see this. He has also checked with several other friends and none of them are seeing any ads either.

Although some may not like viewing ads within the forums, to me this represents good news because it means that:

• We will see less donut errors.
• Orkut may open up to the rest of the world
• Orkut could incorporate Picasa and Google Video (and perhaps Blogger) within (similar to what Joga has).

I'd be willing to put up with a few ads in order to reap more features for Orkut. After all, MySpace has a lot of annoying ads, and yet people keep going back and logging in.

After all, Google is probably losing millions of dollars by not running ads, and I am sure there are many businesses (especially in the entertainment and fashion world) who would love to market to the Orkut community.

Update: I contacted Phil over at Google Blogoscoped and he confirmed that people have reported the same thing to him as well.

Does Orkut Limit Your Friendship Number?

Apparently Amit Agarwal has reached the maximum amount of friendships allowed on Orkut and even provides a screenshot of the warning he received over on Digital Inspiration:



According to Amit this not only includes current friendships (regardless of level) but also open invitations as well.

You can have upto 1000 connections on Orkut. If you reach that limit, you will not be able to add new Orkut friends. This 1000 limit also includes Open Orkut Invitations - people you have invited to join Orkut but they haven't do so yet.

I have only 200 friends on Orkut [...] but when I tried adding adding a new friend, it says that before I can add new friends, I must remove old friends. [Hope this is not the case in real life]

I have heard rumors in the past of Orkut limiting friendship numbers to 1000, although there are users who have surpassed this amount, and have even created a forum called ­Tenho Mais de 1000 Friends (or I Have More than 1000 Friends) to celebrate this fact.

One user who goes by Gerente do orkut? reclamacoes aki has well over 10,000 friends and seems to be doing pretty well expanding his social network.

Perhaps these "mega friendship" users surpassed 1000 connections before Orkut imposed a limit system wide (and are thus grandfathered into the system). Either way it will be interesting to see if Orkut lifts or increases this in the future. If not, I would not be surprised if someone developed a hack around this.

Orkut Rumors That Just Won't Die

I hate to mention this, but apparently the rumor that Orkut will delete your profile lives on, despite the fact that this has been debunked by the Orkut Team via Orkut News.

(2/16/2006) We heard there's a rumor going around orkut that says orkut.com will delete your account for inactivity. We've even received this notice from someone pretending to be Orkut himself! This is not true and you can safely disregard these messages or scraps.

Unfortunately people are extremely gullible or did not receive the memo that this is a hoax.

Although I love all most of my friends on Orkut, if you could please stop forwarding me this message, I would love you even more. Thanks.

Hotmail Got You Down?

So I think there might be a reason many of us (us being "orkuteers") are seeing this strange error.

Apparently this is happening whenever an invite is being offered to a hotmail address.

This is not a scientific analysis, as it is happening to only me and another user thus far (but more people are reporting weird things with hotmail).

I guess the only solution is to send them a gmail invite. Sigh.

An Orkut Hoax From The Founder?

I am starting to see this on some scrapbooks of users, and only came across this when someone scrapped me.

Dear user because of sudden rush of people signing upto orkut is come
to an attention that we are vastly running our of resources so with in a week
any one who does not receive this scrap will be deleted of our server . We know
that you are still using this account

We want to find out which users are actually using their orkut accounts so
if you are using your then please send this scrap to every orkut user that you
can if u do not pass this scrap to anyone then we will delete your account
From Orkut Buyukkokten

Admin dept.
Have a great time on orkut!
-the orkut team

I could be wrong, but I don't see the point in Orkut Buyukkokten deleting people who do not post this message as it would be the fastest way for Google to join the dark side of the force. Not to mention the fact that Google's grammar is usually semi decent, as "upto" isn't a word last I checked.

Although I find this hoax to be cute, I do not enjoy "socially engineered spam" populating throughout the Orkut universe. Hopefully the Orkut team (or Orkut himself) can clear this up as some people are taking this rumor seriously. Ghetto, isn't?

Orkut Merging With Friendster?

I came across this article about a rumor floating around that Google would purchase Friendster and merge it with Orkut.

(Silicon Beat) "We cannot comment on rumor or speculation," said Eileen Rodriguez, a [Google] spokeswoman.

We haven't done a definitive tally of how Google responds to these sorts of things, but note that this "no comment" is much more sparse than the outright denials Google has issued in the past when something isn't true, including its response to rumors last week about a possible acquisition of Napster.

"We have no plans to acquire Napster, nor do we have plans to develop a music store at this time," Google spokeswoman Sonya Boralv said in a statement.

Like the editors, I have serious doubts on whether this story has any "value" to it, although Google apparently did try to acquire Friendster before (they were rejected and created Orkut instead).

I do not see a need for a potential merger, although if there was one, what would Google do with Friendster's blogs?

Is Google Redesigning Orkut?

(Hat Tip: TeTrAgRaMmAtOn. on Orkut Design)



If so, it may come in green, with a little bit of red too (see images links below).

If this is true, it will make Orkut look more professional, although I will miss the baby blue color that I've grown use to.

For full length images check out the photos below (and please upload them to your own servers or Photobucket.com if you are blogging about this as this to save TeTrAgRaMmAtOn. bandwidth).

• Image One
• Image Two
• Image Three
• Image Four

Enjoy! ;)