Google Social Network: Orkut

shelleymonster writes "According to CNET, Google has quietly released its own version of Friendster, called Orkut. About 3 months ago, Google entered into talks to acquire Friendster, but was turned down. Named after one of its engineers, Orkut Buyukkokten, the new social network looks even tougher to get into than Friendster. An initial 12,000 invitations were sent out, and new users can only join through an existing user. Someone want to invite me?"

Get Invited...

[inertia187]

To get invited, just go to a Dave Matthews concert...duh!

Friendster?

[cspenn]

Friendster was hard to get into because of all those JSP errors. Orkut is by invitation only. Slight difference.

Friends? Who needs friends!

[Steamhead]

I thought those went out of fashion years ago...

Friendless

[DaHat]

So those of us who no one likes will never be let to join? And I thought my life was bad now! First I'm kept out of all of the real world social places... not the online ones too? Could it get any worse?

Yes, the above is sarcasm!

Orkut?

[konichiwa]

Named after one of its engineers, Orkut Buyukkokten

They should have named it Buyukkokten! :(

WOO HOO!

[NDPTAL85]

Alright! Now thru the golden graces of Google, they've amassed all the collective might of the PhD's they employ to re-create the negative social effects of high school cliques and elitism!

YAY!

/. Fan

[sleepingsquirrel]

Orkut? They'll have to do quite a bit of work to give their members the prestige that's associated with having a Slashdot fan.

Invitation only society

[PFactor]

An invitation-only society will always become cannabalistic and/or inbred.

I don't want to be invited into that!

Re:Orkut?

[tommck]

or Bukkake for short....

googoogaga

[jimmi_bob]

google continue their world domination attempts, next thing you know we'll have google linux, google word pro, and google tunes (gTunes?) ... they'll release it all in a single package and call it googogogol

Re:It won't be too hard

[grub]

slashdotters don't know 3 people each if you discount both parents and Mittens the cat. :(

To quote Groucho Marx

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't join any club that would have me as a member. =)

Re:Orkut?

[ellem]

Didn't you get the memo from Tom Chiusano that we can't say Bukkake anymore?

Re:Orkut?

[Java Pimp]

Buyukkokten!

Looks like something one might hear while playing Street Fighter.

I don't know why everyone make so many jokes..

[msimm]

about these things. I met my best friend, my wife and my rabbi on friendster. I'm not even jewish!

;-) Sorry.

Re:Friendster?

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

If you HAVE to ask, your not on the list...

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Orkut membership for sale on Ebay

[Anonymous Coward]

Just kidding! :-P

bukkake?

[Grimlock88]

Next time someone questions the educational ability of the internet, simply respond with that one word. It is proof that we've all learned something new, which we probably never would have.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:oo, shiny web site

[Feztaa]

I especially like the "join orkut" page... I was expecting it to say "haha, loser! go away!"

Re:Orkut?

[tuffy]

They should have named it Buyukkokten!

Sorry, but Ogg already took that name for another codec. Expect Ogg Buyukkokten to arrive soon and deliver amazing, patent-free chocolate cake compression over TCP/IP.

Riiiight...

[anactofgod]

Google put up a network to compete w/ Friendster.
Riiiiight

Twelve thousand initial invitations went out to join.
Riiiight

Only members can invite new members.
Riiiight

This is the BEST vaporware campaign EVER!

---anactofgod---

Invite only?

[clckwrkMalChick]

I feel like the fat kid who always got picked last for dodgeball. Wait, I am the fat kid that always got picked last for dodgeball. Somehow this hurts slightly more.

Sounds like the Stonecutters ...

[gubachwa]

First thing this reminded me of was the Simpsons' episode where Homer became a member of the Stonecutters ...

Who controls the British crown?
Who keeps the metric system down?
We do! We do!
Who leaves Atlantis off the maps?
Who keeps the martians under wraps?
We do! We do!
Who holds back the electric car?
Who makes Steve Guttenberg a star?
We do! We do!
Who robs the cave fish of their sight?
Who rigs every Oscars night?
We do! We do!

Yeah. I really want to be part of Orkut. Please, someone invite me. Not.

Re:googoogaga

[Lugor]

... Google Strings..(gStrings?)... umm.. nerds in gStrings.. ugh..

yuck!

Cranium soap please!

Re:Google Company Directive

[DigitalBubblebath]

...by working on it about one day a week--an amount that Google asks all of its engineers to devote to personal projects

Is it the Sunday?

Re:Invitation only society

[corbettw]

An invitation-only society will always become cannabalistic and/or inbred.

So, what, we should expect to hear banjos when loading the home page? How will this effect the search results for "squeal + pig"?

SocNets we'd like to see

[theCat]

Mobster: you must be a member of a gang or Mafia. To get in, you need to have a rap sheet with at least 20 entries. First 12,000 invites went to email addresses in Federal prisons.

Witchster: you must be an initiate into witchcraft. To get in you need to have posted at least one spell of your own creation, with details on the underlying operation principles. First 12,000 invites went to the High Priest/Priestesses of covens registered as nonprofits.

Govster: you must be a politician who is, or recently was, running for any public office in the United States of America. To get in you must have a public web site that contains the slogan "Vote for America! Vote for me!". First 12,000 invites went to the list of people who ran for Governor of California in the latest state election.

Re:Friends? Who needs friends!

[dasmegabyte]

Yeah. We call them "buddies" now.

Re:Not the most fortunate name

[bgarcia]

In finnish, the word "orkut" is the plural form of the slang word for orgasm. Gives a completely new meaning for the idea of "Orkut is an online community that connects people through a network of trusted friends."

That explains the huge percentage of Finnish signing up!

Thanks!

- Google Orkut Development Team

The Eric Cartman business model

[The I Shing]

It's the Eric Cartman business model... we've built this really great thing and YOU CAN'T USE IT!

People will be clamoring to try and get access to this thing only because they're being told they can't have it.

What a great country!

Re:"In affiliation with Google"

[FoogyFoo]

yes, but it's a good thing it's not called "Google Friends".

Can you imagine the confusion, if it were name something that would be shortened to "GFriends"?

Re:Branching

[Ba3r]

Maybe its a secret plot to analyze internet communities and relationships, from which to extract information on quelching those upstart query ruining bloggers!

Re:Branching

[telstar]

All they really had to do was invite Kevin Bacon, and we'd be all set....

They should call this WHOogle

[G4from128k]

I'm surprised that Google doesn't create more plays on its own name for various functions. Besides the Froogle shopping site that could have:

Whoogle -- social networks
Oogle -- porn
Doogle -- jobs
Zoogle -- info on animals
Choogle -- food, recipes, and restaurants

Re:Friendster is so 2003

[Rufus211]

I think you are confusing balding 40-year old men who pretend to be teenage girls online with actual women.

Or maybe I'm confusing AOL chat rooms with friendster.

Re:Catch 22

[dasmegabyte]

Not true.

I had one friend on Friendster...he's a real kind of savvy guy who's totally well adjusted. Joining via him added a bunch of new contacts, some of whom I got on very well with.

So, I join friendster with one friend, and suddenly I have ten more. I introduced a few others to my wife, who used to complain about not being able to meet people.

Friendster is just another way to meet people you might like. It's like a digital party, only you don't have to clean vomit off your couch.

Re:Orkut?

[LearnToSpell]

I hate to tell you, but that's not chocolate cake dripping down your face...

Re:Call me pessimistic...

[Archangel Michael]

And remove upstream until all associations are removed, to the root invitee. Then Remove all the association down from that same invitee.

Call it "Pruning the tree".

Re:Friendster is so 2003

[ichimunki]

Never thought I'd say this on Slashdot, but it's "loose" not "lose"!

"join now"

[snellgrove2]

and the point of the join button is...to take you to a "no, you cant join actually.." page weird

Dear Orkut

[Letter]

Dear Orkut,

I saw on your web page the offer to "expand the circumference of your social circle." That's great and all, but can you help expand the circumference of my little Urkel?

thanks!
Jaleel White

Re:Friendless

[JuJue]

Forget Orkut...I'm joining the Stonecutters

Here's what you do...

[Quixote]

To see if someone you know has an Orkut account, head on over to their "forgot password" page here [orkut.com], enter their email address, and hit submit.

If it responds with "invalid e-mail address", then you struck out; if not, score!

Now, next thing to do is to automate this [cpan.org] with your mailbox, and then see which of your "friends" didn't invite you!

Re:Orkut?

[squidfood]

I read that as "Buy You Cock Ten"

Since the first part (Buyuk) is "big" in Turkish you could be righter than you know.

Re:Orkut?

[jargoone]

Didn't you get the memo that Howard Stern is washed up, and has an unfunny, scripted show that hasn't been good in years?

Re:Friendster?

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't get invited either.

Orkut won't let you in?

[cocobongo]

So let's see, this great site that noone can even see is the next big wave?