Orkut Versus Facebook

After having observed the social networking phenomenon for quite some time now, I decided to find out which one of the most used social networking websites, i.e. Orkut or Facebook, is more popular and why.  I actually thought that by reading various blogs, visiting various different forums, talking to different people who use these sites etc. would be enough to find out who is the winner out of these two…but alas, I was wrong. All I got was a variety of mixed responses and they only added to the confusion. Here is a meagre attempt to discuss the pros and cons of both- Orkut and Facebook.

Orkut is ‘the’ most popular website in India and Brazil whereas Facebook is the favorite social networking website for America and Europe (MySpace is also a competition…but we are not talking about it here!).

Apart from this, both Orkut and Facebook are disliked for some reasons or the other. First and foremost, Orkut offers you only basic social networking facilities. Whereas, Facebook has a number of other cool applications such as quizzes, Flixster, iLike etc. These make Facebook much more interesting. Orkut is said to have a number of drawbacks such as the fact that it does not allow its user to upload a number of photographs at once, the deletion of photographs has to be done one by one, tagging a user is not allowed, organizing the scraps as per your friends is not allowed and so on. SMS alerts, like those on Facebook, are also a missing feature. Some of these features are there on Facebook and thus it automatically gets that extra edge.

However, this inference is not enough to prove that it is better than Orkut in every way. People who are big fans of Orkut have a number of things to say in its favour as well. Or rather I should be saying that these people have a number of things to say against Facebook. Some people are of the opinion that Facebook has too many things and thus is slow whereas Orkut is really very user friendly. Privacy options are not that strong and efficient in Orkut’s case, hence people are easily able to trace conversations through scraps etc. which makes it fun to use (don’t know if it is a good thing or not!). Moreover, the profile page and links on Orkut are much more systematic and organized. The Google tag attached with Orkut is a major advantage in itself. The name ‘Google’ is enough to build trust and attract users. More so, Orkut is said to be constantly improving and is considered to be introducing more and more features on a regular basis, which offers something new to its users every time.

The debate however remains open-ended. Which of these is better is completely an individual’s choice. So, whichever suits your needs and requirements better, just stick onto it. Happy Orkutting and Happy Facebooking! (If at all these two words exist!)
Cheers!

ORKUT…The Popularity Check!

When the ever so popular Google launched its own social networking site ‘Orkut’ in 2004, it got a lukewarm response in the beginning.  Initially it was only popular with IT professionals but thanks to the youth of our nation, it became a youth icon (literally, in reference with the MTV Youth Icon Awards). Now if you don’t know what Orkut is or what it is about, then you need to do some serious homework. Orkut became the new trend, the new fashion and the new need. Yes…you got me right- need! It had actually become impossible to survive without it.

The trend had actually become that if you came across someone you are meeting up for the first time and you wished to stay in touch with that person then instead of exchanging phone numbers or e-mail ids, you straight away asked- “Hey, you there on Orkut?”. Such is its reach. No doubt, that in no time, Orkut became the 2nd most popular website in India and the most popular website in Brazil!
Why it became so popular…

Its users liked it for its simplicity and more than anything else, its novelty! Orkut can be given the credit for acting as the pioneer in India as far as the entire concept of social networking is concerned.

Moreover, since it was owned by the ever so popular Google itself, then the fact that its sister website also became popular does not come to anyone of us as a surprise.

Orkut also had the advantage of people not knowing about its competitors such as MySpace or Facebook. People knew only about Orkut and Google made sure that it did everything to popularise it even more (like by giving a link to Orkut from each of its web search results page etc.)

Is the charm fading out…

The charm of Orkut, as they say, is surely fading out. And there are a number of reasons responsible for it.  First of all, and thankfully people got aware of the other options to choose from. Facebook is undoubtedly catching up and even MySpace has also started to make its presence felt. Even the Indian social networking websites like BiggAdda and ibibo etc. are gaining momentum. They are likely to do much better if at all they pay a bit more attention to their advertising campaign. That’s a different issue however.

Next, the spam! This issue has really led to the defaming of Orkut. Fake profiles, fake ids, fake communities, and receiving bulk spam messages- all this and more such things have led to users gradually shifting from Orkut to other similar sites. The security and safety of the user account and his/her personal information is also a big question that Orkut has not been able to answer time and again.

It can also be noticed that since the time Orkut.com changed to Orkut.co.in, its popularity has actually gone down.

I hope that Orkut’s this popularity check has helped you, at least a bit, in your opinion about the same. If you are still on Orkut, then Happy Orkutting else congratulations on your wise decision!