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

She

Saw NOTTING HILL TODAY ... I guess for the 7th time.Few friends came to my room to pick me up for the movie (to be viewed on computer next room). Well, I decided not to be the party pooper and joined them.

The movie is over. And all I can remember now is the title song ...... Here are the lyrics.
Not really in a mood to write anything. Njoy .

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She may be the face I can't forget
A trace of pleasure or regret

May be my treasure or the price I have to pay

She may be the mirror Of my dream
A smile reflected in a stream

She may not be what she may seem inside her shell

She who always seems so happy in a crowd
Whose eyes can be so private and so proud

No one's allowed to see them when they cry

She may be thelove that cannot hope to last
May come to me from shadows of the past

That I'll remember till the day I die

She may be the reason I survive
The why and wherefore I'm alive

The one I'll care for through the rough And ready years
Me, I'll take her laughter and her tears
And make them all my souvenirs

For where she goes I've got to be
The meaning of my life is She
She
Oh, she


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No one remembers my name

Believe it or not, I've been listening to Jailhouse Rock - Elvis for past two days in a row.....I wrote this one way back.

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No one remembers my name


My worst fear has come true
I should have thought this through
My picture misses in the frame
No one remembers my name

Should have seen it come
Should'nt have kept mum
Wish I could replay this game
No one remembers my name

Betrayed by those whom I trusted
Shatters the faith enthrusted
Why am I to feel the shame
No one remembers my name

Quote ::

India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grand mother of tradition.

Mark Twain.

That singlemost dreadful moment !!!

I'm listening to "Dont Chaa - Pussycat Dolls"
Actually have a headache....and thats a rare thing.

The agony of getting out of bed early morning!! Every normal human being must have felt it at some moment or the other.

It has been like this for the past 4 years. Hostel life is all about night life, everything happens under the cover of darkness. The power of BLACK brings out the actual person within.

As I woke up today (Monday, 8:50 am) I was totally hapless. My body was paining, red shot burning eyes, headache (I was'nt drinking last night, just 4-5 games of volleyball followed by a traditional visit to the canteen) .... and still I had to get up and go to class. And on top of it, had to sit in the second row as all the back benches were filled before I reached.

And there I wrote another poem,describing that moment when the alarm clock jolts you out of your wonderland.

**********************************************
The Alarm

The light spreads out,
chasing the darkness away,
Birds chirping all around,
embracing the new day,

Cozy in my bed,
cherishing my wild dreams,
As I forget my dread,
Kept alongside my alarm screams,

Jolted out of my wonderland,
my world comes crashing down,
Numbness in my legs and hand,
Consciousness begins to drown,

But the clock keeps screaming,
Loud and wide,
Slowly the reality sinks in,
Demeaning my pride,

Classroom beckons,I've got to attend,
My voyages in dreamland come to an end,

With a heavy head and a sour heart
I droll out of my bed,
Joyous feelings escape to the dark,
The soul fills with dread,

The screeching sound is unbearable now,
Wish I could change this world somehow,


But this is the mark of my laziness,
This is how I belong,
This world thrives on crazyness,
And my odyssey will carry on.


QUOTE :::

We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.

Albert Einstein.

The phoenix

There are so many people in this world who are unhappy. And the main problem is that they dont know the cause of this unhappiness.Everything around just seems to fall apart.Each new step becomes another mistake. Friends move further away. Conflicts within decay the spirit.I see so many such lives around me,who are merely alive because they are'nt dead.

And this got me thinking. And the thoughts translated into what is written below.

______________________________________________

The phoenix

There have been instances
People devoid of senses
Barricaded within iron fences
Worn down by offences

Horizons fade away,endless,brittle
Inertia takes over,roads disappear
The sparkle and glitter,all frittle
Pierces our heart a morgul spear

And in the lives,silence creeps
Somewhere in grief a widow weeps
In our hearts, darkness seeps
somehow we forget our greatest leeps

How can we let down our guard
Why simplest of things now seem so hard
Looms large the menace of credit card
We need to try, we need to try hard

For the phoenix will rise from its ash
A fiery globe, a distant flash
Our faiths and beliefs may clash
But finally, this gloominess will crash
This gloominess will crash
It'll have to crash

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Quote :::

Live for the love of life; Not for the fear of death.

Use your grey cells B4 they turn white

I often brood on things. Sometimes for insanely long stretch of time.Dont know whether it is good or bad.It does take a lot of my time. I've acquired notorious titles from my friends like "The invincible planner" or "Systematic Kutta". But it has helped me draw a clear picture of the most important aspects of my life. My process of thinking
is now highly channelised and produces very good results in a very short time. And documenting it marks the icing on the cake.In fact, I believe you reach the heights of your actual self-introspection when you are able to write down your thoughs pin-point on a piece of paper.

And its benefits go a long way. You will ALWAYS have a productive argument or discussion. You might not always come on top,but you wont waste time rambling over some arbitrary notion. You'll immediately know when is the discussion going off track, whether the other person is wrong or you are wrong.The objectivity of your conversation increases.

So I urge all of you to think. And start to pen down your thoughts. It could be on a blog or your personal diary, or any arbitrary piece of paper for that matter which you might preserve or destroy.

You'll immediately see the difference once you do it 3 or 4 times. At the beginning, you'll marvel at your incompetence to express yourself,especially in english (not being our mother tongue).This habit has made me realise how to streamline the thought process and also, the importance of vocabulary.


QUOTE :

Google's done a super job on search. Apple's done a great job on the iPod. We're a company that's brave enough to say that we'll keep those categories very competetive and see what we can do to come up with something that is even better in the years ahead.

Microsoft chairman BILL GATES , in TIME magazine.

Back to college

Sitting in here, whistling "Winds of change" to myself.
There is nothing that comes near the feeling. Nothing.
Aaaah ......... it hurts so beautifully.
Returned home just now. Yeah, this does feel like home.Its 3:30 am, and as expected, half of the college is awake. More so because of Maddu farewell party, and almost everyone is OUT.
Good to sit at my PC again. Missed it dearly when I was home. PC, Internet, Alcohol, Night Outs,Muzic...gotta feel home, is'nt it?

I was feeling so weary just half an hour ago in train, and now I feel like being reborn. The vibe caught me even as I was stepping into the hostel.
Exotic.
I bet no spa could have rejuvinated me better than this.
Had a couple of pegs, and I feel better already. Everyone's chilling.

It’s good to hear Rock n roll again.
Wow ... simply wow.

Gotta go out and join the party now. There's so much to share ....this trip has given me a hell lot of time to think (24 x 2 = 48 hours in train, in the scorching April heat)

So goodbye for now