More about the new orkut

Whats new!!

The orkut team has been working hard on building a new, fast and exciting experience. We've added lots of features and updated others - and we hope that existing and new users alike will enjoy this next generation of orkut. To start using the new orkut, check out the get started section. See you there!

Meantime, here's a look at the new orkut.... 

	Simpler and faster Our team has worked closely with our pals at Google to create the fastest, easiest to use social network. It's all about speed: Now, you can browse photos, check out friend profiles, and view updates faster than ever. So you can enjoy your friends more, and spend less time waiting around for something to happen. Our users told us they wanted to see their favorite activities at the top of the front page. The result: Larger photos, easier to access notifications, faster navigation, and more updates closer to the top... these are just some of changes we've made to speed things up.
	Easy navigation to other Google properties Visiting orkut but need to check your Gmail, or look up an address on Google Maps? Now its easy to stay logged in and visit any Google product by clicking on the small header at the top of any page.
	One-stop notifications No more skipping around to collect your friend requests, testimonials, community requests or birthday announcements! Now you can review all your requests and announcements in one place. The 'what's new' section of the homepage shows all your notifications - just click an item to show more info or take action. Notifications stay on that page until you take action, and you can see earlier notifications by clicking "older".
	Fast photo uploads and photo sharing Now you can select multiple photos and upload them 3x faster. And there's no more waiting as photos upload, so you can start reordering your images right away. Just drag and drop them as you want, rotate them, pick an album cover, or add captions. You can also share the album with groups of friends with a single click, or by selecting faces to tag with your photos. Your friends don't need to be on orkut to see your photos, either - just enter their emails and they can see the images without signing up. Not sure who to share with? Orkut will suggest other folks who might want to see your photos. Photo sharing is a total snap with the new orkut.

Make it your own

	State your status! "Ready for the weekend!!!" "Going to the game :)" "Touched down in New York ;)" - Tell your friends what you're up to by changing the status on your homepage. Your status is always visible to friends on your profile page, and gets posted to friends' updates immediately. With the new orkut, your pals can also comment on your status in the 'friends updates' section. Check and change your status whenever you want, and keep everyone in the loop.
	Pick your favorite colors We've made orkut even more colorful by letting you customize your profile and homepage with your choice of 5 colors. Just pick a new color, and when your friends visit your profile, your page will have a whole new hue.
	It's all 'about me' with more customization If you want to do more than just write about yourself, now you can add a YouTube video, a photo or even embed apps in the 'about me' section. Go to your profile and click on 'about me' to add, edit, and make it truly your own.

Friendlier friending

	Find and invite friends - fast! Finding friends is one of the most important activities on orkut! That's why we've made our "find friends" feature smarter and easier to use. When orkut finds someone you may know, you'll see a suggestion to connect right on your homepage. And if there's a close friend who's not on orkut yet, we'll help you get them on orkut fast, too. Just select "add as friend" (or "invite" for non-orkut users) and send a quick message to invite them to join you on orkut. Once they accept your invitation, they'll be added to your friends list so you can start sharing your world through orkut.
	Cool new friends' updates on your homepage Tired of just reading updates from friends? Now with inline comments for status messages, photos and videos, plus easy to use inline video play, your friends' updates make it easy to interact with your friends, not just read their static postings. Start typing anywhere you see a comment box, then click "post" and your comment will be added to your friend's latest update. Any photo comment you leave in updates will also show up on the actual photo page. Want to watch a video right away? Great! Just click on the video and it will expand and play directly in the updates section. Love the video so much you want to add it to your favorites? Select the option to add to your favorites and it will show up in your own 'videos' section.
	More dynamic friends list Want to find a friend quickly? Your 'my friends' section now lets you scroll through all of your friends directly from homepage. Or just start typing a friend's name in the friends search box, and you'll see only those friends with names that match what you typed. Also, if you have your friends organized in different groups, you can use the pull-down menu next to 'my friends' to filter for different groups of friends.
	Latest activity updates on friends profiles Updated streams on your friends profile pages tell you what they've been doing lately - including photo and video uploads, apps activities, new friends added and more. It's the next best thing to being there in person!

Connect in new ways

	Post a scrap to say "hello" Want to say a quick "what's up" to a friend? The 'scrap' feature lets you post directly to their profile pages. It's never been easier to drop by and leave a message.
	Video chat Face-to-face just got a lot easier, thanks to orkut's new video chat feature. Simply start a chat with a friend the old-fashioned way, then click "actions" on the chat window. You can choose between audio, video or group chat.
	Promote stuff through your friends 'Orkut Promote' is a cool new feature that lets you create online flyers you can share with your friends. Want to sell your old skateboard? Spreading the word about a new video? Just create a promotion and have your friends to forward your items onto their friends. Promote encourages content sharing from friend to friend, and group to group. You can even track how many people have seen your promotions by visiting the metrics tab. Get Started Given the large number of orkut users, we've decided to gradually roll out the new orkut through an invitation-only system for the next few months. Here's how to get an invitation, and what to expect when you do... Get an invite, get started! Want to see the new orkut now? Find a friend who has an invitation and ask him! Those who are using the new orkut will sometimes receive invitations to share with their friends, so they can share the orkut love. Another way to get an invite is to join Poppy and Shashi on the official community for cool insights into the new orkut and to participate in one of the many activities that will be taking place there. Be sure to check back often as the owners will be regularly announcing new ways to get an invite. Users must have an invitation before they can access the new version of orkut. If they have invitations to share, they can send them to their friends on orkut; when those friends receive the invitations, they'll see a special icon at the top of their homepage. To accept the invitation, they just click the icon and they'll then see the new version of orkut. Once they've accepted the invitation, they'll be eligible to receive invitations that they can share with their friends on orkut... and that's how more and more people will be able to get on board the new version. To see how many invitations you have to share with friends, simply look below the friends box on your homepage. Invite your friends Are you already on the new orkut, and want your friends to join you? Well, now you have the power to invite your favorite friends. Look below the friends box for the counter that shows how many invitations you can share. Click "invite your friends" to see a list of your friends who aren't using the new orkut yet - then pick the friends you want to invite and click "send". If you don't see a specific friend in this list then your friend was already invited by someone else. Get more invites We'll periodically give you more invitations to share with friends. No need to ask - we'll keep an eye on the number of invitations you've sent, and give you a few more when you seem to need them. Is this the same orkut my friends are still using? Yes (sort of). You can still interact with all your friends who are using the old orkut, but you'll be seeing orkut in a whole new light. Both versions share the same information, so anything you do on one version of orkut will be visible to your friends on the other. You can even click at the top of the page to go back and forth between the two versions of orkut to be sure nothing got lost in translation. Or you can just trust us :) Can't find an invitation, what do I do? Hmmm, so you really want to see the new orkut? Well, the best way to get an invitation is to visit your friends profile pages. If you see this icon on their profile next to their name, they probably have an invitation they can share with others - so be bold, and ask them for one! Want to invite someone who's not on orkut yet? First, your friend needs to sign up for orkut. Simply use the friend finder "invite" feature and send a note inviting your friend to create an orkut account. Once your request is accepted, you'll see your pal on your friends list. Then, just send your new friend an invitation to try the new orkut. What's Changed In addition to the many new features, you'll see some changes and improvements to the original features on the old orkut, including: Friends' updates are now a default feature Updates from your friends are a core part of the orkut experience. We've found that most orkut users kept this feature active, so we decided to make it a standard feature. Don't want all your friends to see your latest photo uploads? Use the 'selected friends' option with photo uploading to filter your friends' view of your uploads. The IM list is now on the right, and is the only pop-up The chat list of online friends has moved to the right side of the screen. All other pop-ups for events and scraps have been removed - less clutter, more fun! Square photos for all profile photos Already launched in the previous version, we've now cropping and displaying photos now default to a square look. This makes it easier to see all your friends' photos quickly. Limiting private messages to all community members Private messages are a useful way to communicate directly with a limited circle of friends. To make private messaging easier, we have stopped allowing users to send a message to all the people in a community. Messages are designed to be shared among friends; to communicate with a broader group of people, you can simply post to a community forum. IE6 browser not supported for the new orkut The new orkut is not properly viewable in the old Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) browser. If you are using IE6, you will be automatically re-directed to the old orkut version. To upgrade to a supported browser, please download the latest versions of Google Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer 8. All data is supported by both orkut versions If you write a scrap to a friend, or share a photo with many friends... don't worry, they'll still see it no matter which version of orkut they're using.