Orkut.....Google's dark Horse

I'm glad that I had a stormy session on Orkut with my collegues prior to lunch, which made me skip lunch and browse the net for checking the facts on Orkut ( I'm hungry like anything )....those facts intertwined with the fruits of our discussion are written below...didn't get much of it, but so far so good.

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A WORD ABOUT THE CREATOR :

Orkut Büyükkökten is a Turkish software engineer who developed the social
networking service called Orkut while working at Google. He developed Orkut as an independent project while working at Google, the outgrowth of a company policy whereby engineers can spend 20% of their time working on personal interests.

While previously working for Affinity Engines, he had developed a similar system, InCircle, intended for use by university alumni groups. In late June 2004, Affinity Engines filed suit against Google, claiming that Büyükkökten and Google based Orkut on inCircle code. The allegation is based on the presence of 9 identical bugs in Orkut that also exist in InCircle.
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As most of us know,Orkut is Google’s entry in the crowded “social networking” field. Orkut seems to be relying on the combination of the powerful Google brand combined with an invitation-only policy to create interest in a service that otherwise would be regarded as late to the game.

PECULIAR DISTRIBUTION OF USERS

The Orkut community has been watching a large surge of users:
Brazilian users (despite the overall percentage of Brazilian users decreasing)
This is the highest percentage of anysingle country's population using the service. According to the New York Times it's pronounced "or-KOO-chee". The number of Brazilian Orkut users is just under60% of the total users, followed by The United States and India, with about 12% and 15.9% respectively (As of December 12th, 2006)
Orkut is specially popular among teenagers and people in their 20s

COMPETITORS

In all the discussion of Orkut I've been involved so far, most folks are busy comparing Orkut to every other social networking web site around, typically mention Friendster ("it's so much faster!"), or the latest "Fropper", but such sites are a dime a dozen these days.

Friendster, Myspace, and Facebook are few other prominent social networking online services.

But Orkut might just prove to be the the answer to a vital chink in Google's armour.Sounds prepostorous, does'nt it ? I mean, who'll be nuts enough to think that Google can have a chink in its armour....well, even I was shocked to know, but its sure good enough to believe.

So,what problems might Orkut solve that Google would otherwise find significantly more challenging? The answer is :
Its user database.

There are numerous complex models available in the market to track down categories of internet users and subsequently use this data for better advertising.Several big Internet players have had these models in place for quite some time now, and subsequently generatwed huge databases.But Google has no such thing yet, and Orkut may just provide GooGle with that key leverage-
USERS.....Orkut's USERS

Now, anyone will say "Google has millions of users!" . True, but here lies the catch... How much do they really know about those users? Do they really have a user database from which they can mine interesting data? If they have one, it must pale in comparison to what Yahoo, AOL, and MSN have.

The traditional way to solve this problem : Apply a particular configuration of DBMS Models. Then try to convince users to start "registering" for Google. And wait for the DataBase to generate....and let valuable time pass by........

Now, the Google way to solve this problem : Why not piggyback on one of the most viral fads going around: a social network application? And, for added effect, make it an invite only system so that you feel special once you're invited.

Just think about it for a few minutes. Anyone who has been through the Orkut registration process, knows that it attempts to collect a ton of data about you. The kind of demographic data that marketing folks drool over. And right now there are lots of folks dying to get that special invite and begin the sign-up process.

Now to understand the importance of this user data, look at Orkut's Geographic user distribution across the world.
Brazil = latin America's Fastest growing economy - 60% users
India = One of the world's Fastest growing economy - 16% users
America - Economy with one of the highest Purchase Power Parity (PPP) - 12%

FAST FORWARD FUTURE

Google internationalizes Orkut and lets it run to the point that it has millions of users registered and active. That's not an unreasonable thing to expect. Then, one day down the road, they quietly decide to "better integrate" Orkut with Google and start redirecting all Orkut requests to orkut.google.com.

Bingo!

Suddenly they're able to set a *.google.com cookie that contains a bit of identifying data (such as your Orkut id) and that would greatly enhance their ability to mine useful and profitable data from the combination of your profile and daily searches.

The big online players already do this sort of thing to some degree or another. But Google's lack of intimate knowledge of their users is surely holding them back from doing some of the things they'd love to do. Maybe it's just a matter of time before they try to get "real" users signed up.

However, the other side of the coin is not so good....like all the other social networking services, Orkut has been designed to promote a set of pre-determined behaviors instead of enabling users to do what is most interesting and useful to them. Consequently, Orkut seems too inflexible to succeed as intended by Google as of now.

In its current form, Orkut is plagued with a broken relationship model, a too-strong focus on dating, a problematic interface, and features that seem to be barely considered. Orkut must correct these faults if it wants to become the first social networking service with staying power.

A long term serious hurdle is Orkut's user agreement. It states

“By submitting, posting or displaying any Materials on or through the orkut.com service, you automatically grant to us a worldwide, non-exclusive, sublicenseable, transferable, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right to copy, distribute, create derivative works of, publicly perform and display such Materials.”

Individuals who are aware of these terms are unlikely to contribute anything of substantial value to their profiles or to community forums. Artists, writers, and creative people of all kinds—sought-after members of any social network, online and off—will especially be inclined to use other services with friendlier terms. This will keep Orkut as a leisure service, as a mere fashion among people rather than pushing it to the next orbit where serious forums will be formed and professional endevours will be undertaken on this forum.

This can prove to be the major hurdle, as the world is racing towards an e-society.

THE REMEDY

Orkut can learn from its rivals.The friendly and progressive terms of competitor Flickr are much better:

“We claim no intellectual property rights over the material you provide to the Flickr service. Your profile and materials uploaded remain yours. You can remove your profile at any time by deleting your account.”

Similarly,Rival social network Ryze includes “Want” and “Have” categories in user profiles, but relies on individuals to find them by browsing.

THE UNSEEN ADVANTAGE

Unlike most services, which are focused on promoting a single type of social connection, Orkut has designed a system that will augment all aspects of users’ lives—personal, social, and professional.

Orkut must refocus on building an infrastructure that will enable user-directed “Better Than Reality” connections. Building pre-specified user interactions into a comprehensive service is a waste of time.
Building a solid system that will enable users to connect on their own terms would set Orkut apart. Otherwise, users will move to the next social networking application as soon as it is unveiled.

THE GOOGLE FACTOR

Google has, through innovation and excellence, accrued a huge reserve of public goodwill. Its chances to succeed are very high.....but Google has set itself a totally different set of Benchmarks....and it'll take more to push Orkut in that league.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY :

Wealth can be displayed in two ways - either by accumulation, or by selection.

Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged


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REFERENCES :

www.wikipedia.org
www.digital-web.com
Rebecca Blood
Jeremy Zawodny