App highlight: BuboMe

Posted by Connie Zhou, BuboMe.com

[Since apps recently went live on orkut, we're excited to invite orkut developers to guest blog and tell us about their apps here.]

BuboMe is a photo application that lets you pimp your photos or your orkut friends' photos by adding themes and speech bubbles.

Create a Bubo

With a single click, your orkut profile photo is uploaded to the app and you are ready to pimp it by selecting a theme. There are nine categories with hundreds of themes to choose from. You can choose to be a superhero, a celebrity or even a cartoon character.

Drag thought or speech bubbles into your photo, type in the content of the bubble and then save it as a new bubo. When you are done, your new photos are displayed on your orkut profile as a slideshow.

The BuboMe photo app is currently available in 5 languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese. If you have friends who are not on orkut, they can still create a bubo by going to BuboMe.com.

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What's going on next to our blog

Posted by Natalie Schwartz, orkut team

We noticed the other day, after we added yet another link to the right-hand nav of our blog, that there is quite a lot going on over there. We thought it might be helpful to provide a short description for each item, so here is a top-to-bottom list of the tools and links we have listed.

• Search box: search our blog for quick access to past posts
• "Join orkut" button: chances are good that you're already a member, but just in case ;)
• Site feed: learn how to read our blog's content through other feed reading services, such as netvibes, pageflakes, or iGoogle
• "+ Google" button: quickly add our blog to your iGoogle homepage or Google Reader account
• Archives: browse past posts by month
• Email us your thoughts: pretty self explanatory, but please keep sending your feedback!
• Orkut birthday gadget: add a gadget to your iGoogle homepage so you can keep track of your friends' birthdays without keeping orkut open all day long
• Orkut demographics: we added this link in response to popular demand
  
• Share your orkut stories: we have featured several of these on our blog and on the orkut site, so keep them coming
• We've also provided links to a number of other products that are popular among orkut users, as well as links to dozens of other Google blogs

We hope this helps you take full advantage of the tools and links that accompany our posts.

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Happy Mother's Day!

Posted by the orkut team













To honor the thousands of mothers and mothers-to-be that we have on orkut, we've put this special doodle on the login page today. We expect that you've already called home, seen your mom, or at least sent her a scrap, and if you haven't already, get to it! We know you care, because our largest community on orkut is for mom lovers!

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What's new with you?

Posted by Luiz Genoves, Software Engineer

Are you headed off on a big trip? Want to share your excitement about a favorite sports team's recent championship? Inviting your friends to a party you're having tonight? Recently we launched status messages on orkut profiles that let you do just that.


It is simple, quick and easy: go to your profile, type whatever you want to appear as your status in the box right below your name, and it is done! Now whoever views your profile can view your latest news.

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What do think of my photo? Make a comment!

Posted by Natalie Schwartz, orkut Team

Since photo sharing is one of the most popular ways to use orkut, we are constantly working to add more functionality to our photo albums. Last week we launched a feature that lets you rearrange your photos within an album, and we announced that you can upload up to 10,000 pictures to orkut (have you taken full advantage yet?). Today, we're happy to share that you can now comment on your friends' photos. Captions have always been a fun way to tell your friends what's going on in your pictures, but sometimes when you're looking at others' photos, you want to respond to the captions right there rather than sending a scrap or message. To post a comment, simply type your response in the comments section below the photo and hit "post comment." Your comment will show up below your friend's photo. If you decide afterwards that you'd like to take down your comment, you (or the photo owner) can always remove it.

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App Highlight: iLike

Posted by Hadi Partovi, iLike


[Since apps recently went live on orkut, we're excited to invite orkut developers to guest blog and tell us about their apps here.]

iLike is an app that lets you share lists of your favorite videos, artists and music with your friends. One of iLike's unique features is that it lets you add songs and scraps.

To add song snippets as scraps, you'll first need to search the iLike library to find a favorite song.

To add song snippets as scraps, you'll first need to search the iLike library to find a favorite song. If you click "Send as a scrap," you will receive a simple line of code that you can copy and paste into any friend's scrapbook:

The iLike Challenge- how well do you know your music?
With the music challenge, you can test your musical knowledge and compare your score to your friends' scores. The app will play a short snippet of a song and prompt you to identify the artist. Challenge your friends and show your score on your profile.

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orkut Super Users visit Google Office

Posted by the orkut team

On Apr 18, the Google office in Belo Horizonte hosted a special event for some VIP guests: the orkut super users from the Portuguese Help Group. By bringing together these orkut experts and enthusiasts, we got some critical feedback about orkut and learned more about how they sustain our help community. Here's what they thought about it:

"The invite was a surprise, a dream come true, which just shows how Google cares for its users and how it's always exceeding our expectations. The atmosphere in the office is so exciting that you don't want to find your way out. As if we were orkut ambassadors, we felt our voice was heard when brainstorming about suggestions and usability issues. We hope we have done a good job at representing millions of users who have orkut as their favorite website." Alexandre Luis Vignado

"This day became a historical landmark for me. I enjoyed every single moment, from printing my badge at the front desk to toasting with Googlers during TGIF. I had to pinch myself to believe that I was visiting the company responsible for the most successful social networking website in Brazil: orkut! The environment is so relaxing that you can easily forget there's hard work being done in each of those cubes. But Google doesn't forget it and does the best to reward its employees with massage, hammocks, and game rooms. And the treats in the micro kitchen, of course! Visiting a Google office is like visiting a Google product: fun and quality everywhere! As you can see from my impressions, I don't feel I myself worked hard on that day, event though I participated in brainstorming sessions for 7 hours. Those were magic hours when we felt part of the orkut team and did our best to speak for all those users we interact with in the Help Group. orkut just became more admirable and promising for me." Cesar JB

"The invite was a surprise that only the visit itself could beat. While taking a tour at the office, we met some engineers who were having a meeting around a team member's birthday cake, which they kindly shared cake with us. Nice start... Even after working hard at focus sessions for hours, we didn't want to leave, which was perfectly fine for those Googlers who stayed with us celebrating TGIF and playing foosball. Cool, sociable, and smart people work there – and we attest, they're NORMAL people. :-) It was also great to meet in person my partners in the Help Group, Cesar and Alexandre. This bonding time will just improve our teamwork spirit." Luiz Fernando

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App highlights: iPoke and Teen Patti

Author: Sanjay Aggarwal
Company: Minglebox

[Since apps recently went live on orkut, we're excited to invite orkut developers to guest blog and tell us about their apps here.]

The Minglebox team is excited to develop applications that are tailored for the Indian audience -- iPoke and Teen Patti are two apps we've made available on orkut.

With iPoke, you can interact with friends using Indian lingo. Get caught in cricket with college buddies. Bowl a maiden over, fox a friend with a googly, or get hit wicket. Resume the chalk-piece war from your old school days. Missed your friend on his birthday? Smash a birthday cake on his face!

Teen Patti is an Indian version of 3 card poker, also known as flash. It is a must play before and on Diwali for many Indian families. Even losing is supposed to bring you good luck! Teen Patti is a multi-player game, so gather some of your friends online to get started.

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