Reasons for Orkut's Death: Why is Google shutting down Orkut

Orkut was the first ever social-network I ever registered to. The feeling was amazing to make new friends and chat with long distance friend. It was a king among soldiers in the social-networking market. Though I haven’t used it for years, I simply love it and everybody does. Recently Google has gone on record by deciding to shut it down. Let’s Read more about Orkut and reasons why it’s shutting down:

What is Orkut?

Named after its creator Orkut Buyukkokten, it’s a social networking site that’s owned and operated by Google. The idea was to rediscover old friends, make new ones and speak up about anything and everything and anytime. The journey started on January 24, 2004 and will end on 30 September, 2014.

Was it popular?

Extremely; till 2007-08 Orkut was ruling the world then, especially Brazil and India.

 In 2008 Google announced that Orkut would be fully managed and operated in Brazil, by Google Brazil, in the city of Belo Horizonte. This was decided due to the large Brazilian user base and growth of legal issues.

Although Orkut is less popular in the United States than competitors Facebook and MySpace, it is one of the most visited websites in India and Brazil. In fact, as of December 2009, 51.09% of Orkut's users are from Brazil, followed by India with 20.02% and United States with 17.28%.

Though FB was rolled out in 2005 (2004 in the US), it took two-three years for people to fall in love with the features FB had to offer. In fact, such was the popularity of Orkut in Brazil that only in 2012 did FB finally eclipse the Google product. The other market where Orkut worked well was India. Orkut had almost 120 million users in 2008.

But with Facebook making it so much easier to discover friends and allowing users to set their privacy level, it was just a matter of time, that the king (Orkut) had to make way for the emperor (Facebook)  leaving the throne for him.

Why is it shutting down?

Politely put, Orkut got overpaced by Facebook and twitter. Though Google is known for killing many of its products, all now in the  “Google Graveyard” ;A note was sent out by Google on June 30 studiously avoiding the F-word –and by that we mean Facebook –as it read:”Over the past decade, YouTube, Blogger and Google+ have taken off, with communities springing up in every corner of the world. Because the growth of these communities has outpaced Orkut’s growth, we’ve decided to focus our energy and resources on making these social platforms as amazing as possible for everyone who uses them.” Truth be told, FB killed Orkut, and Google+ (the “successor” of Orkut) is still far behind FB.

Can I still access Orkut?

Yes, you can till September 30. All you have to do is login with your Google username and password. You can also export your posts and photos to Google+ using Google Takeout (a Google project that allows user to retain their data and download them). After Orkut shuts down, its public communities and pages will be archived and preserved. If you don’t want your name or posts to be a part of this archive, delete your Orkut account.

Is there anything that Facebook can learn from Orkut?

Facebook should have something like Orkut’s theme feature using which ones page looks beautiful and colorful. Facebook is the same wherever you go –blue, blue, blue. The theme feature allowed you to rate a friend’s crush-worthy quotient.

The death of Orkut tells us that…

No social network is forever, today is the FB and twitter era tomorrow will be something else. And, 2014 is not Brazil’s year. The lost their Facebook days long before they lost the World cup.

Why Orkut didn’t work out:

These are the reasons why it is being shut down:

No social-sharing plug-ins: For Buzzfeed and Cracked.com addicts like us, it makes things so much easier if there are plug-ins to help share articles, photos or videos on social media platforms. Unfortunately, Orkut doesn’t provide any.

Limited business promotion: Ads are allowed on Orkut. However, one cannot share them outside the website, which basically beats the point of having advertisements n the first place.

No privacy: The only privacy you get on Orkut is in the chat box. Everything else you post is available for the world to see. For instance, if you checked somebody’s profile the person will about it, let alone the world.

No entertainment: No in-programme apps or games available for fun.

No searchability on Google:  Orkut profiles do not come up on Google Search. One can only access a profile if he/she has an account on Orkut.

It’s based on two types of web-development languages: ASP on the front-end and Javascript, OpenSocial at the back-end. Application for such combination is not easy, unlike Facebook, which is programmed on PHP. This leads to a lagging interface and repeated messages, which read: “No cookie for you!” Aargh!

Popular products of which are now in the Google Graveyard:

Google Wave (2009-2012): A real-time messaging platform.

Google Health (2008-2012): A system where users could bring together all their health records.

Knol (2008-2012): Something on the lines of Wikipedia.

Google Reader (2005-2013): RSS reader, which kept track of content on new sites, blogs and so on.

iGoogle (2005-2013): An option to personalize one’s page.

 If you have something to add to this article please drop a comment or contact me. Lots of love and enjoy reading.