Google Orkut becomes simpler, smarter and faster

The new Orkut dons a user-friendly interface and offers features such as posting video testimonials, changing the colours of the content boxes, the ability to discover friends automatically, video chat integrated with Google Talk, ability to upload photos in bulk, and add and view photos and videos in-line.

Orkut, which boasts of 80-100 million active users, has also increased the space limit for user's status message to 140 characters.

Thanks to the Google Web Toolkit, load times are now lower in Orkut and pages are more user-friendly while various applications allow users to now chat, browse, watch videos, comment on a friend's status update or photo and do more without needing to open a new page.

"With the new user interface (UI), the user does not have to visit each page for viewing videos, or say posting scraps. He gets to see all updates and respond to his friends from the homepage itself," said Vinay Goel, head (Products) of Google India.

However, there's a catch. People can become members of the new Orkut only through invites from existing Orkut members or by joining the official Orkut community.

According to tech analysts, Google made the move at the right time as other social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter were poaching on its users in its strongest markets viz. Brazil and India.

According to ComScore, in September 2009, Orkut only attracted 51 million unique visitors across the world while Facebook and Twitter boasted of 300 and 58 million unique visitors respectively.

Not surprising as the earlier Orkut had major flaws that prompted many users to migrate to other sites. For instance, Orkut's online security system was very weak and user interface was, at best, average.

However, Google promises that the new Orkut is quicker, richer and offers a safer experience for users.

Unlike the earlier Orkut, which seemed like an outcast from the Google family, the new Orkut also promises an enhanced integration with other Google services, allowing a quicker access to various other Google services.