Check out Orkut- You'll Be Suprised

Just when you thought that there couldn't be room enough on the web for another social networking site, there is one more.....
I was suspicious at first as to why google would want to add to the growing sesspool of social networking websites, and wanted to know more. I created an account(again, easy as pie as I already own a google account) and went to work studying the layout of Orkut. I was pleasently suprised. It comprises all the features you know and love from facebook, like its apps and stuff, but it goes on to make some additions. And these additions aren't overly done, mind you. They take the best from everything and spin it into Orkut.

Some have been dismayed by the fact that they cannot use HTML to customize their facebook profile, while the majority of us(I'm assuming, but really)were put off by all those gawdy profile pages that take all day to load. What the Orkut team has done it create the scrapbook feature, were you can post video, images, and do whatever to a post with HTML. It won't go so far as to change the whole layout of your page, but it gives you the freedom of customization that us computer illiterate can only manage with rudimentary hyper text markup language.

I also found the idea of creating a community facinating. Not a new idea, but a new spin has been put on it here. In facebook and some other sites, we see that the group feature is slightly limited, only there to keep us appraised of events and such. What Orkut has done it to create a place where a set of like-minded people can come together and to discuss whatever they feel like in a separate forum feature, create polls for only the user, and even keep you up to date on the latest events. Some of the other great features are that the creator has more ability to moderate and take ownership of the community, going so far as to only let people in who have an invitation, keeping content invisible to the casual spammer and so on. Much like a regular yahoo or google group, or message board.

With the limited amount of time I have right now, let me also just say that Orkut has what some of us may be familiar with in regards to business networking sites like linkedin and such. Your profile can include more of a comprehensive job history, kinda resume like if you will, and you can find and add friends according to your interests; just take a look at some of the groups you are in, and add whoever you want. It makes creating your network a little bit easier.

With all that said, go to Orkut and get started! See what it has to offer for you.