Orkut
Posted by Stuart at 10:52 AM on February 13, 2004The latest "social networking" site to get a lot of press lately is called Orkut. There is nothing new about these kind of websites (Friendster is another one), but I thought this one was interesting because it was sponsored by Google.
So I had high hopes since it was a Google product, even though most of the reviews I have read have been negative. But since you can only sign up if you are invited by a friend, I have sat here and waited for my invitation. Finally, today I received one from Jase.
Now, I am an official member. My thoughts? It's nothing special. In fact, they could use some help in the information design. I've also noticed a bug or two. A lot of the questions were, in my opinion, quite personal and invasive. Those, I left blank. In general, though, I still don't get the point of these services. Does anyone?
Also, I invited a few friends who I thought might be interested in taking a look at the service. If you did not get an invitation from me, and you want one, let me know.
My cousin told me to sign up on friendster for some reason. I did, but I kept getting random people asking to be my friend. I have always thought that meeting people online was pretty sad, especially if you are trying to find a mate. I only had my cousin as a "friend" on friendster, and I thought that my only having one friend on friendster (which I never use) was evoking pity from those other people.
So, I found a site that autogenerates random people to put on your friendster. They are all Nobel winners, hookers, the like. Pretty funny. I haven't received another friend request, so I guess it must've been pity after all. At any rate, I agree with Jase.
For some people, these services are yet another way to hookup. For others, it's an amusing diversion. For me, it's a just desperate cry for attention and validation.