The Google Social Networking site, hugely popular in Brazil, India and Pakistan, turned 4 years old this 24th. As expected, the logo was changed, and is shown above. I joined Orkut in late 2004, back in the days when it was quite exclusive, and was invitation only. It has grown by leaps and bounds in the last 3 years with the number of members exponentially multiplying, and communities spawning like anything. Orkut has also often been a target of moral police due to its “Anonymous/Fake identity” enabled features. And this has more than often caused disturbances and uproars, especially in India.

A t Year 4, Orkut is now open to all. Does that mean, it is going to be more of fake and pseudo profiles, more spam invitations to even more spam communities, or is Orkut fighting back? Orkut has seen a lot of changes, especially in the last one year, with the addition of new features. Like the Report Spam to Scraps, and also New Privacy Options. And now, the ultimate measure in tracking down spammers. Apparently, whoever creates an Orkut ID, his/her IP address, ISP provider address and machine name will be logged in the Google server. So, no one in the Orkut network is a stranger for Google.So beware anyone who is planning to play a prank against any sensitive person/organisation. They might get in touch with Google and hunt you down.

In the coming year, I have a lot of hopes from Orkut, as it still remains my favorite social networking community. Primarily because I have all my friends here. But also because, I still see Orkut having enough room for improvement, and also we are yet to see the actual dawn of Opensocial on the Orkut platform. Let’s hope that 2008 be a fruitful year for Orkut. Cheers!

..................................................................................