What are your friends up to? Check out your homepage

Posted by Priya Mandawat, Software Engineer

Ever since we added "updates from my friends" to the orkut homepage, you've been requesting that we add more information to these updates so that you can stay informed on the latest developments from your friends. Over the past several months we've some added new types of updates and ways for you to control what kinds of updates you see. You can see everything from new photos and videos that your friends upload, to testimonials they receive, to changes they make on their profiles.

Now you can tell your friends what you are doing or how you're feeling right this minute by changing your status message on your profile and letting it show up in your friends' homepages.

If you prefer to keep your updates private, we give you the option of not showing your friends your updates. To prevent your updates from appearing on your friends' homepages, go to the Privacy Settings page and select 'hide updates' under the "my updates" section. If you don't want to see updates from your friends, select the "don't show updates from my friends" option under the "updates from my friends" section on your homepage. But if you ask me, with all the cool comments I get on my new photos and the scraps I receive in response to my other updates, I'm not going near these settings!

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orkuteers visit Google Bangalore

Posted by Robin Norvell, orkut Operations Team

A few months ago, we invited our Portuguese orkuteers to visit Google's Belo Horizonte office. But we weren't going to rest until we'd given our orkuteers in India the same chance to meet the orkut team and share their feedback about orkut in person. On June 6, three of our Indian superusers from throughout India met at the Google office in the Garden City (aka Bangalore), where they told us what they loved about orkut, shared suggestions for improvement, and sampled Google cuisine (and chai tea, of course). On hand to talk with them were a group of Googlers from the orkut team including product managers, engineers, operations staff, user experience researchers and HR reps.

Even at the end of a long day, there was still excitement in the air at the Bangalore office. The orkuteers gave first-hand feedback of some soon-to-be-launched features, and they also shared some common user pain points that the team can start working to remedy. The orkut team was happy to have Rakesh, Prashant and Gaurav share their perspectives, and the orkuteers were thrilled to meet the Google guides and engineers. Here's what they had to say:

"It was the most memorable day in my life because it helped me to meet the guides, orkuteers and engineers.”

"The invitation was really surprising for me…That day became the historic landmark for me. I will never ever forget that day that I spent there with Google. Google people are so careful about users and that day they cared a lot of me and my mates. I feel lucky that I'm a superuser. This was the first time for me that when anyone was asking question, I was listening with my full concentration.”

"The best thing about being an orkuteers is to receive the recognition from Google for doing something that I just love, helping people on orkut. The recognition I'm talking about is not just gifts, but to know that Google wants to hear from me about problems and suggestions for orkut and the orkut Help Group."

The orkuteers were happy to serve as reps for many orkut users, and would like to thank all members from INDIA community and OUG community for feedback to help prepare for the orkuteer Day in Bangalore.

We're glad they enjoyed the day, and many thanks to them again for their continued support in serving as wonderful guides in the orkut help group!

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Drag and drop to customize your profile page

Posted by Adam Winer, Software Engineer

Orkut profiles have become a lot more dynamic in the last year. Not only are your photos, videos, and testimonials showcased on your profile, but now users in many parts of the world can also add OpenSocial applications to their profiles. With so many new elements on the profile page, we've received feedback that you'd like to be able to arrange it as you wish.

So, to help you organize all this content and show your visitors the elements you most want them to see, we've rolled out new functionality. Here's a couple of things you can now do:

1. Reorganize your profile page with drag-and-drop: Simply click on any of the applications or showcases (photos, videos, and testimonials) on your profile page and drag them around until they are just as you'd like. The new layout of your profile page will automatically be saved, so your profile visitors will see everything just as you want it.
   
2. Put as many or as few applications on your profile as you want. Until now, you were able to display up to three applications on your profile, and some of you wanted to show more. Now, when you add an application, you can choose whether or not you want it on your profile. Just select or unselect the "Add to my profile" box above the big "Add Application" button. You can change this any time with the "tool" button in the upper-right corner of the application.

So go ahead and rearrange your profile and make it your own...and if that's not enough, why not add a theme as well!?

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Tag- that's me!

Posted by Sam Goto, Software Engineer

Photos have long been a popular feature of orkut, which is why we have engineers working full-time to make it easier for you to upload, share and browse photos on orkut. Recently, we increased our photo capacity so you can upload as many as you like, and we made it easier for you to organize your photos once you have them in your orkut albums. This week, we launched photo tagging so that you can label your orkut friends in your photos.

Here's how it works: when you're browsing your own or your friends' photo albums, simply click the "add tag" link below the bottom right corner of the photo. Then click your mouse over the friend you would like to label. A box will appear, prompting you to type your friend's name. As you type, the field will auto-complete so you can easily find the orkut friend you'd like to tag. When you browse tagged photos, hover over the name of a person to see which person he or she is in the photo. If you click, you'll be taken to his or her profile.

When one of your friends tags you in a photo, you'll receive an email. If you'd like to turn this notification off, you can go to notification settings. If a friend tags you in a photo and it's not you (or just a bad photo of you!), you can click on the trash can next to your name and delete the tag for good. The photo owner also has permission to delete any tags on his or her photos. If you'd rather not let your friends tag your photos, or be tagged in any photos, you can disable the feature completely in your privacy settings. Many people have already begun tagging their photos. Happy tagging!

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Sharing YouTube videos on orkut made simple

Narayan Kamath, Software Engineer

Have you ever been watching a funny video on YouTube and decided halfway through that you must share it with your orkut friends? Previously, you had to go to your orkut "favorite videos" page and copy-and-paste the video URL to post these clips. Now you can share videos on orkut directly from YouTube! Click on the orkut logo under the video you are watching on YouTube, and you'll be taken directly to your "favorite videos" page on orkut. The URL of the video you're watching will already be loaded, so all you need to do is hit "add video" to post. Now that it's easier than ever, go ahead and share videos with your friends on orkut.

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Private communities for your work or school

Posted by Kuldeep Gharat, Software Engineer

Communities on orkut come in all shapes and sizes. Large, open communities are great for meeting new people and getting news on topics you care about, while smaller ones help you keep in touch with friends and people from your school or work. When we launched private communities several months ago , we let community owners decide who could access content in their communities -- all orkut users or just members of those specific communities. Recently, we added additional functionality to let you create communities that are only open to people who share your email domain. For example, I have an @google.com email address for work, so I could create a community that is only accessible to those who also have @google.com email addresses.

How does it work? First, enter the email address for the domain you share with your classmates or colleagues into the contacts tab of your profile. When creating a new community, simply choose the "validated - email validation required" option, then select the domain from the drop down box. Anyone who wants to join the community will first be required to validate his or her email address from that domain before being allowed to join.

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A faster, lighter version of orkut

Posted by Nishant Redkar, Software Engineer

A few weeks ago we launched a low bandwidth version of orkut that makes your experience on orkut faster. This is especially helpful if you are using a 56.6 or 64 kps modem, or if you are on a DSL connection with many users. How does it work? The low bandwidth version of orkut avoids downloading images unless you really want them, which lets you navigate through the site more quickly.

When orkut pages seem to be taking a long time to load, you'll receive a prompt that lets you switch to the low bandwidth version. Similarly, orkut also prompts you to switch back to the regular version if the pages start downloading quickly again. If it seems like your connection is slow and you don't see a message, you can manually switch to the low bandwidth version by going to the general settings tab.

Although some things are displayed differently in the low bandwidth version compared to the regular version (for example, your friends and communities will appear as simple lists, rather than photos), people who have tried the low bandwidth version have told us that they are sticking with it: it's saving them money (if they pay by amount of data downloaded) and is making it more efficient and fun to browse the site. So give the new version a spin -- it may save you time or money or both!

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If you're in India and feel like a change of scene...

Posted by Nishant Redkar, Navneet Nair and Narayan Kamath

Since orkut first launched back in 2004, the site has had a soothing, blue color scheme that we've all come to know and love. When we redesigned the interface last August, we switched up some elements but kept the blue theme. While some of you love it, we've also heard that others would like more freedom to customize your orkut experiences, just as you customize your profiles. Now you can make your orkut profile reflect your mood for the day or change the theme to match the current season.

We recently began rolling out 12 themes to a percentage of our Indian users, and these themes should be available to all Indian users by the end of this week. We're currently testing this new feature, and if we hear that users like it, we plan to roll it out for everyone on orkut and continue offering more new themes.

How do you switch your theme? Click on the "change theme" link in the top navigation bar or go to the"themes" tab in the edit profile page. You'll then see our gallery page, where you can check out all the themes that are currently available. Alternatively, if you visit a friend's profile page and he has a theme you like, click on "get this theme." When you select a theme, all your orkut pages will have this theme: your profile, scrapbook, photos, videos, etc. When other users visit your profile or other pages, they will see your selected theme.

There is also an option to disable all themes in case you'd rather navigate orkut all in blue. There are times when you access orkut from slow speed connections, and images on the site may take longer than usual to download. On those days, it may help to disable themes completely so that your friends' profiles load more quickly.

So go ahead, be colorful! Express yourself. Let us know what you think of the themes at our orkut help group.

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