Google recently sent an emotional email to Orkut users, informing them about the official (but long impending) closure of the service. While it was the first social media experience for a lot of us, after Facebook emerged on the scene and gained global domination, Orkut never really managed to catch up and got waylaid.
Now, it's been so long that you probably don't remember what it looked like — let alone your login details — but there are a number of ways in which Orkut was better than facebook, and ETPanache enumerates seven reasons why.\
There was less chance of malware
With Facebook, you've probably heard of people getting scammed into clicking on malware links which can compromise their account or share to their wall without permission. That never happened on Orkut, though it could be argued that this was before social networking took off.
You could change what it looked like
Facebook stays the same shadealone app. Features have been added to it — but back in the day, Orkut offered in-browser chat/messenger and video chatting.
It didn't have ads or sponsored posts
Google had a lot of funding to keep Orkut going - so there were no advertisements, banners or sponsored posts - at least at first. All the content you saw on the page was created by users. Ads in boxes (and clearly marked as ads) only came later.
You could customise it with apps
The top bar had a section called applications. Quite like adding extensions to a web browser, you could add apps and simple flash games to your Orkut page. These appeared in the applications sub-section on the home page. Each app showed the number of users and a star rating so that you could make an informed choice.
It was tightly integrated with other Google services
Like with other Google services, you could easily switch to Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Google Play, Drive, News and so on. Links to all services stay in a persistent bar on the top of the page.
It had simpler privacy settings and offered more control
Rather than having a huge list of terms and conditions with complicated privacy settings, everything with Orkut was simple and upfront. Clicking on Settings > Privacy showed you all the settings in one easy-to-read interface. Even within a scrap, you could change its privacy (or viewing) settings by clicking on the gear icon.
Orkut will be shutting down on September 30, 2014. Till then, you can still sign in and view all your photos, friends and scraps. If you have data in Orkut, Google provides a way to export photo albums to Google+. In addition, you can save your profile, scraps, testimonials, and community posts to your computer using Google Takeout (you can do this until September 2016).
Now, it's been so long that you probably don't remember what it looked like — let alone your login details — but there are a number of ways in which Orkut was better than facebook, and ETPanache enumerates seven reasons why.\
There was less chance of malware
With Facebook, you've probably heard of people getting scammed into clicking on malware links which can compromise their account or share to their wall without permission. That never happened on Orkut, though it could be argued that this was before social networking took off.
You could change what it looked like
Facebook stays the same shadealone app. Features have been added to it — but back in the day, Orkut offered in-browser chat/messenger and video chatting.
It didn't have ads or sponsored posts
Google had a lot of funding to keep Orkut going - so there were no advertisements, banners or sponsored posts - at least at first. All the content you saw on the page was created by users. Ads in boxes (and clearly marked as ads) only came later.
alone app. Features have been added to it — but back in the day, Orkut offered in-browser chat/messenger and video chatting.
It didn't have ads or sponsored posts
Google had a lot of funding to keep Orkut going - so there were no advertisements, banners or sponsored posts - at least at first. All the content you saw on the page was created by users. Ads in boxes (and clearly marked as ads) only came later.
It didn't have ads or sponsored posts
Google had a lot of funding to keep Orkut going - so there were no advertisements, banners or sponsored posts - at least at first. All the content you saw on the page was created by users. Ads in boxes (and clearly marked as ads) only came later.
acebook, and ETPanache enumerates seven reasons why.
There was less chance of malware
With Facebook, you've probably heard of people getting scammed into clicking on malware links which can compromise their account or share to their wall without permission. That never happened on Orkut, though it could be argued that this was before social networking took off.
You could change what it looked like
Facebook stays the same shade ..
There was less chance of malware
With Facebook, you've probably heard of people getting scammed into clicking on malware links which can compromise their account or share to their wall without permission. That never happened on Orkut, though it could be argued that this was before social networking took off.
You could change what it looked like
Facebook stays the same shade ..
You could customise it with apps
The top bar had a section called applications. Quite like adding extensions to a web browser, you could add apps and simple flash games to your Orkut page. These appeared in the applications sub-section on the home page. Each app showed the number of users and a star rating so that you could make an informed choice.
It was tightly integrated with other Google services
Like with other Google services, you could easily switch to Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Google Play, Drive, News and so on. Links to all services stay in a persistent bar on the top of the page.
It had simpler privacy settings and offered more control
Rather than having a huge list of terms and conditions with complicated privacy settings, everything with Orkut was simple and upfront. Clicking on Settings > Privacy showed you all the settings in one easy-to-read interface. Even within a scrap, you could change its privacy (or viewing) settings by clicking on the gear icon.
Orkut will be shutting down on September 30, 2014. Till then, you can still sign in and view all your photos, friends and scraps. If you have data in Orkut, Google provides a way to export photo albums to Google+. In addition, you can save your profile, scraps, testimonials, and community posts to your computer using Google Takeout (you can do this until September 2016).
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