Orkut Buyukkokten, one of Google's engineers, has created a social networking service for Google. Right now it is 'invitation only.' Google employees, and friends of Google employees make up the 'orkut' membership. Are you a member?
Update from CNET: "Google spokeswoman Eileen Rodriquez said that despite Orkut's affiliation, the service is not part of Google's product portfolio at this time. "We're always looking at opportunities to expand our search products, but we currently have no plans in the social networking market."









1. Wow! I can't believe that google would put their name on something this bad! I've come to expect a certain standard from them, and just by looking at the intro pages it is totally below par. Take this gem: "The mission of orkut is thus to increase the overall satisfaction of social life and provide the necessary tools for a more efficient and intimate environment." LOL
I just did some googling on this guy and he is listed as the Inventor/Founder of Affinity Engines, a social software startup. So he has a competing startup to "orkut" as well as being a google engineer? If you look at the "orkut" terms of service it appears that "orkut" is a seperate company as well...
Hopefully this will turn out to be some sort of hoax. The fact that I can't see this site referenced from labs.google.com is reassuring. Google employees often have a great sense of humor, so viewing this as a spoof on all the lame social networking sites is actually hilarious. The incredibly bad (and self-centered) name and weird pink logo combined with the strangely worded intro pages add up to the best laugh I have had all day. Thank you Google engineers! This is the most subtle and tongue-in-cheek Friendster spoof I have seen yet!
Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Dave Mervine