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Google Social Network: Orkut

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the first-rule-of-orkut-is-you-do-not-talk-about-orkut dept.

shelleymonster writes "According to CNET, Google has quietly released its own version of Friendster, called Orkut. About 3 months ago, Google entered into talks to acquire Friendster, but was turned down. Named after one of its engineers, Orkut Buyukkokten, the new social network looks even tougher to get into than Friendster. An initial 12,000 invitations were sent out, and new users can only join through an existing user. Someone want to invite me?"

7 of 623 comments (clear)

  1. Branching by Microlith · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It'd be interesting to see how the contacts branch from the original 12,000 people.

    You could see how they branch, what countries they cross into, and how people relate to each other (interests, age, etc.)

    I wonder if this'd be something sociologists would like to watch...?

  2. What a way to attract users.... by TiMac · · Score: 3, Interesting
    By rejecting those that click the "Join" button. Why even have a Join button then?

    Frankly, I think they can go screw themselves....I won't hunt down a way to get into "the clique" and may not even if a friend invites me.

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  3. Invite yourself? by Speare · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It seems to me, that once you've been invited, you can "invite" your web-driven robot, which can offer a backdoor for many other random people you don't know.

    It's like saying you can't get into a brick-and-mortar "gated community." Unless you're a pizza delivery guy. Or any of his friends.

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    [ .sig file not found ]
  4. oo, shiny web site by AEton · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1) Wow, it's even more cliquey than C2! Well, almost.
    2) The Orkut website is really pretty.
    This is typical for Google. How do they get the text to fade in on page load? It's really neat. Look at the TOS page for an example - you see the pink/purple orkut.com's for a while, and then the rest of the text fades in. Is this just a simple CSS thing I should know but don't because I'm stupid?
    3) Check out the "golden key" icon (at their privacy policy). It's amazing! lol

    --
    We recently had heard in the office over one of the Yellow Machine that's made by Anthology Solutions.
  5. Call me pessimistic... by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... but while "invitation only" to begin with, doesn't necessarily ensure the quality of the network in the future. All of us have some "good" friends, as well as "bad" friends. The people with more questionable ethics could even go as far as auctioning an invitiation on ebay or something similar.

    All forms of socialization over the internet seem to start out with loads of potential, but in the end, they all suffer from the scum that tends to surface.

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    "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
  6. where'd they get 12,000 e-mail addresses? by jdunlevy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Seems like a lot of addresses. How were they gathered?

    Doesn't look like orkut.com had a sign-up period or anything...

    Doesn't look like it was sent to Google-Friends Newsletter (not in the archive; plus RTFA, in which says "Google spokeswoman Eileen Rodriquez said that despite Orkut's affiliation, the service is not part of Google's product portfolio at this time.")

  7. Re:Not the most fortunate name by joonasl · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I think the word actually comes from the common latin root with the english word "orgasm". The proper word is "orgasmi" and "orkku" (of which "orkut" is the plural form) is just a short slang for of that..

    (..like anyone is really intereted in the linguistic finesse of finnish slang :)

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