Official Google India Blog: orkut

Preserving Orkut’s history

September 30, 2014

Today, we are bidding farewell to Orkut. But, as we announced at the end of June, while the service may be going away, its history of connections and conversations will live on. For a decade now, millions of people, spread around the world, have been brought together by common interests and lively discussion to form a vast collection of vibrant communities. And, as of today, public content on those communities is being preserved in the Orkut Community Archive: 51 million communities, 120 million topics, and more than 1 billion interactions.

Whatever the topic—from futebol to horror movies—there was a place for you to connect with others who shared your passions. And now you can go back and revisit them anytime. These conversations don’t just represent a history of Orkut, but will serve as an important time capsule of the early history of the social web. Of course, if you don't want your posts or name to be included in the Archive, you can remove Orkut permanently from your Google account at any time.

And, while you won’t be able to access Orkut itself anymore, users can still export their profile data, community posts and photos using Google Takeout (available until September 2016). Please visit our Help Center for further details.

Orkut’s history is a sign of a great future, as the web explodes every day with new and great options for social interaction. We hope that the decades to come will be filled with even more of the connections, communities, and conversations that made Orkut special.

Posted by Paulo Golgher, Engineering Director

[Cross posted from the Official Orkut Blog]

Posted by Paulo Golgher, Engineering Director

Farewell Orkut

June 30, 2014

Over the past decade, YouTube, Blogger and Google+ have taken off, with communities springing up in every corner of the world. Because the growth of these communities has outpaced Orkut's growth, we've decided to bid Orkut farewell. We'll be focusing our energy and resources on making these other social platforms as amazing as possible for everyone who uses them.

We will shut down Orkut on September 30, 2014. Until then, there will be no impact on current Orkut users, to give the community time to manage the transition. People can export their profile data, community posts and photos using Google Takeout (available until September 2016). Starting today, it will not be possible to create a new Orkut account.

Orkut, the service, may be going away, but all of those incredible communities Orkut users have created will live on. We are preserving an archive of all public communities, which will be available online starting September 30, 2014. If you don't want your posts or name to be included in the community archive, you can remove Orkut permanently from your Google account. Please visit our Help Center for further details.

It's been a great 10 years, and we apologize to those still actively using the service. We hope people will find other online communities to spark more conversations and build even more connections for the next decade and beyond.

Posted by Paulo Golgher, Engineering Director

Ten years ago, Orkut was Google’s first foray into social networking. Built as a “20 percent” project, Orkut communities started conversations, and forged connections, that had never existed before. Orkut helped shape life online before people really knew what “social networking” was.

Posted by Paulo Golgher, Engineering Director

New Orkut features -- Like?

March 23, 2011

Just as we add different smileys in emails, scraps and chat, we recognize that you likely have different reactions to your friends’ stories. Here are a few you might recognize from Google Chat, and in addition, you can find extra “smileys” if you type in the right code in the comment field.

Feel free to follow us on our official blog (en.blog.orkut.com) and the official community at www.orkut.com/orkut

Give our “like?” feature a try today and see just how diverse your friends are in their reactions. Rock on, Orkut users!

Posted by Gustavo Moura, User Experience Team

Two weeks ago, we announced that we are preparing a visual upgrade to Orkut’s interface. We have just started to roll it out to a small percentage of users, so some of you might start to see it. Right now, we are only upgrading those who are using new Orkut, but if you are in the old interface, please do give it a try when we complete the transition!

In addition, we are happy to announce a new feature today that we hope you will “like”:

Found something interesting ? Share on orkut !

December 15, 2009

Web publishers and bloggers can also post orkut share buttons on their pages using a simple JavaScript library.

More details about orkut share API and sample code can be found on orkut developer site.

So spread the word, have fun sharing!

Posted by Rajiv Mathews, Jayesh Sharma

We are happy to announce the launch of a great new way for orkut users to share interesting web content with their friends - The 'Share on orkut' bookmarklet for browsers

You can install the bookmarklet from here for all browsers

When you find something interesting on the web, just click the bookmarklet and share the content with your orkut friends. Your friends will get the link and your comments in their updates. You'll also have an option to promote and recommend the content to your friends.

Web publishers and bloggers can also post orkut share buttons on their pages using a simple JavaScript library.

More details about orkut share API and sample code can be found on orkut developer site.

So spread the word, have fun sharing!

Posted by Rajiv Mathews, Jayesh Sharma

Orkut helps advertisers to engage with their customers

September 10, 2009

1. Orkut allows advertisers to reach the largest online audience^* in India

Over 17 million active users. That’s more than 45% of the Indian online population

Over 6 billion pageviews in India each month

Average user visits the site 10 times each month, spending 12 minutes per visit

2. Orkut allows advertisers to focus on the users they care most about

With the highly-specific targeting options that orkut allows advertisers, they can now choose to show their ads to groups or individuals based on their age, gender, interests, geography and keywords

3. Orkut allows advertisers to get high visibility for their budget and goals

Ads appear on prominent positions on users' homepages, community pages and search results within orkut.

With only one ad position per page, the ad is guaranteed high visibility and increased user recall.

Advertisers can choose to pay on a ‘per click’ basis or on a ‘per impression’ basis depending on their campaign goals

4. Orkut allows advertisers to be creative

Advertisers can use an ad format that best suits their promotion.

Orkut supports text, static images, animated images and flash ads. We would continue to add more formats for advertisers to make the ads interesting and useful for orkut users

5. Orkut allows advertisers to tap into the power of AdWords

New AdWords Interface Google AdWords brings performance and measurement to marketing campaigns on orkut.

Advertisers get the best value for their marketing spends in an auction-based model. They can start, pause and modify campaigns at any time. They can also track performance with real-time reporting and gain insights about user's reactions.

Ad campaigns for orkut can be setup on Google AdWords by selecting social networks and online communities in the placement tool

6. Orkut allows advertisers to create custom solutions for brand building

For advertisers who require very high visibility and for those are sensitive to campaign time slots, orkut offers a 'custom branding' solution. With this option, advertisers can run targeted display ads in orkut communities and on users' homepages.

The custom solution allows advertisers to purchase and reserve ad impressions in advance. They can also block an entire day’s traffic for their ads to increase the impact of their brand campaign.

For personalized support to build the best brand campaign, advertisers can contact the Google sales team by mailing orkut-india-sales@google.com

* source: comScore, Media Metrix, July 2009

Posted by: Srikanth Belwadi, Kushagra Shrivastava & Savio Barretto

As the #1 social networking site^* in India, orkut helps over 17 million people stay connected - whether it’s uploading photos, videos or simply leaving a message. orkut is home to hundreds and thousands of communities and applications. Users talk about food, sports, travel, gadgets, movies, art, automobiles, schools.. almost everything.

orkut now offers an opportunity for marketeers to use the power of this social medium to engage with their audience. All kinds of businesses, from large brands to a local small enterprise, can now drive awareness and engagement for their products and services on orkut using Google Adwords.