When Orkut Buyukkokten, a Turkish software engineer working for Google, decided to devote his spare time to creating an online networking site, little did he realize that his name would soon

be entering into internet terminology along with Google, Wiki, ICQ, Yahoo etc. Orkut in Turkish means “city of happiness, pleasure, joy, luck”.

What is Orkut?
In simple terminology it is a social networking site, where you can register, log in, create a profile, meet with people of similar interests by joining in communities and meet new people. You could also run into your old friend or that girl to whom you had lost your heart while at college, or your hot colleague at office, on whom you had a massive crush. Social networking on internet started out with portals like Yahoo, MSN, Rediff having groups of similar interests. So if you had a weird interest in the history of Third Reich, and wanted to find out other people, or you were a die hard Quizzer( like yours Truly) you could look out for fellow quizzers. You could discuss the finer points of Vangelis compositions or Pancham’s  combo with Gulzar. After some time social networking sites like Ryze, MySpace, Friendster came into the picture also. Orkut  was launched by Google on Jan 22,2004.

How it Works?
The process is simple, register and create your own profile. At the basic level, a  Social profile is created which gives your details, your interests, your hobbies, your activities. You can also mention your Professional and Personal details. And yes you do get to upload your picture. Since Orkut does not have any policy on pictures, you can upload whatever picture you want. If you are a fan of the Joker, you can put that picture too, or you could upload a picture of Al Pacino, if you always wanted to be like him.

How to Make Friends and Influence People

There are many ways to make friends on Orkut. One if you are looking for an old friend, do a search of his, giving his/ her full name. The searches throw up 4 tabs Users, Communities, Topics. And most likely you can search for Users.

Another way is you are moving to a new place, say Timbuktu. And you are interested in knowing if any Indians are there in Timbuktu, so you could do a search for Timbuktu, and if by chance, you run into a group called Indians in Timbuktu, you can join that group, and find out details and be rest assured, that you will run into fellow Indians in Timbuktu.

Or you happen to be a die hard fan of  Tushaar Kapoor, and want to find like minded fans so that you are spared the ignominy of listening to all those rants against your beloved Tushaar, you could find a community of Tushaar fans. Or more interestingly you could also find a community called “I love Red the Movie”.  Yep, don’t get scared, there are enough such weird communities on Orkut.

If you happen to be more of a crusader, and you hate Ekta Kapoor, Kjo, Himesh Reshamiyya, Aishwarya Rai, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears in no particular order, there are a lot of I hate communities. So you could either join I hate Ekta Kapoor or Himesh Reshamiyya Sucks community to vent your hatred, without worrying about what hurt fans will say. Of course die hard fans of these icons have come up with a I Hate those Who Hate Ekta Kapoor or I Hate I Hate Paris Hilton. Maybe we could run into something like I Hate Those Who Hate Ekta Kapoor who hate Karan Johar who hate Paris Hilton.

How Useful is this?

Contrary to the claims of many that Orkut is just a networking site, it is useful in other ways, provided you make use of it.  I recently had an offer from South Korea, and I wanted to get information on how useful it is, the cost of living, and other factors. And on Orkut I stumbled into a group called Indians in South Korea, where I had really useful information from Indians living there.

Also there are a couple of technical groups, where I could get some useful technical information. But then I guess its due to the nature of my job. Hard core techies, thrive in working in groups and collaboration. A majority of technical problems have been solved by referring to discussions in forums or with other people. A major part of my time, is spent in browsing the net for technical information, or interacting with other developers. So this is something I have been used to.

Also you tend to interact with people sharing your passions more closely. If you are a passionate fan of  Al Pacino, you could maybe write a review out here, and get some wah wah’s saying “Oh what a great review you have written”. But you want to go further and discuss much more in detail, say Pacino’s most underrated performances or his face offs, these groups provide a good forum. Interestingly the Pacino group on Orkut of which I am a member is hosted in Pakistan, and there are a lot of Pakistani’s, Iranians, Brazilians who are as much fans of Pacino as Indians are. Also keep in mind, that communicating on Orkut is totally different from here. You have to be short and straight to point. You can’t afford to indulge in leisurely rambling and go on and on. People there just don’t have time for it. Whenever you post a topic, it has to be in such a way that it can provoke a discussion.

Scrapping and Dating.

Here it does not refer to fighting, it simply refers to act of putting up a post on your friend’s profile page. It could range from “Hi, how ru? Hows the weather “ to a more important message. Only thing avoid posting any cootchie cootchie, lovey dovey messages. These scraps are public and can be seen by others. Unless you have a Tom Cruise like tendency to display your love.But as a dating site, I am skeptical about Orkut, because 90% of the profiles don’t have a genuine picture. So most of the time, you don’t even know the face at the other end.

Now  regards the controversy over I hate India groups, and that news of terrorist attacks being planned, well cant be helped. It’s a free site, and at the most, we can delete some of those groups. And even if you are very self indignant and want to shut down Orkut, you can’t. Iran tried to, and the users there have come up with a proxy. Pakistan for all it’s moral policing, has a number of Pakistani’s indulging in not so Islamic behaviour. And our own Shiv Sena crusaders, wanted to, but they cant, because the servers are located somewhere in US. So like it or not Orkut is here to stay, and after some time be prepared for people asking your Orkut profile, the way they ask for your email id or mobile number.
 
I am already prepared any my Orkut profile is http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=596193556766785840.