Orkut is a social networking site owned by Google, with messaging, text and video chat, and customizable themes. It’s available in 48 languages and popular in Brazil and India. The site has had privacy and security issues but has implemented fixes.
Orkut is a social networking site, similar to Facebook and Myspace, owned and operated by Google Inc. Like other social networking sites, its purpose is to provide an online community where users can maintain existing relationships by connecting with friends and family members, and where they can also meet new friends and interact with each other in a variety of ways. Features include messaging, text chat, video chat and the ability to customize the look and feel of the site using a variety of colors and themes. Anyone over the age of 18 can participate. Orkut is available in 48 languages and is particularly popular in Brazil and India.
Orkut is named after its creator, Orkut Büyükkökten, an employee of Google Inc. Site-specific features include easy access to Google properties such as Google Maps and GMail, and an area on each user profile called a scrapbook. In the album, users can post “snippets,” which are messages that can include text, images, maps, videos, and emoticons. There’s a streamlined version of the site designed specifically for mobile users, and what Google calls a “lighter” version for users with slow Internet connections.
Google launched Orkut in 2004 and it soon became one of the most visited websites in Brazil. In 2010, orkut had more than 100 million users worldwide. Brazil had the largest number of visitors with 48%, while 39.2% came from India and 2.2% from the United States. The site was formerly popular in Iran, but the Iranian government now blocks access to Orkut, claiming it is a threat to national security issues and Islamic values. The governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have also blocked access to the site.
Since its inception, the site has addressed some of the problems and security issues that commonly plague social networking sites, such as e-spam, trolling, cyber-stalking, and hate groups. There have also been some privacy issues. One cause for concern is that, unlike other social networking sites, orkut users could previously view the profile information of any other user, whether or not that person was in their network. Various privacy settings have been added to allow users to limit access to profile information and other content. The site has also been the target of an Internet worm designed specifically to use Orkut to access bank details, passwords and other personal information, but Google has implemented a fix for this security issue.
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