There was a time when I would fight with my folks over the number of scraps we had on our Orkut scrapbooks. But the joy of using a social networking site for the first time in our lives was soon forgotten. All we did was move on to Facebook and Twitter.
Status updates, profile pictures and online dating were alien terms for most of us before Orkut came into existence in India. The country learned about online social networking through Orkut. And now, the time has come for us to bid farewell to it. Google announced on Tuesday that it would wind up its first social network venture on September 30.
“Like many others, I too began social networking through Orkut. It made getting in touch with long-lost school friends a possibility. I would call it the “Blue Revolution” for, most social networking sites that came later — Facebook, Twitter and Skype — are all blue. Orkut, to me, will be like my Sony Walkman, the Nokia 6600, or the Ambassador — all of them leaving us with lots of good memories,” says Rajiv S, a doctor from Chennai.
Paulo Golgher, engineering director of Orkut, wrote in his blog, “We will shut down Orkut on September 30, 2014. Until then, there will be no impact on current Orkut users, to give the community time to manage the transition.”
Started in 2004 by Google, and named after its founder Orkut Büyükkökten, Orkut was popular in the Indian social networking scene around 2008 as well as in Brazil, but its popularity faded with the entry of Facebook, Twitter and other sites.
In an era when letters and slam books were completely replaced by e-mail and online chatting, Orkut swept us all like a wave, giving us a whole new ‘avatar’, online.
“Late night scraps, favourite pictures and videos, first-ever ‘About Me’s’, testimonials and communities…. a site that was an instant hit is now a distant memory, rarely revisited. Nevertheless, for giving young Indian teens their first online ‘social network’, thank you Orkut, and goodbye,” says Srivatsan N, a student at IIT-Madras.
According to details on the site, 50 per cent of Orkut users are from Brazil and 20 per cent, from India.
“Orkut was indeed revolutionary when it started. It introduced us to the concept of online social networking. Later, it paved the way for other sites like Facebook and Twitter. But yes, the guy has made his money, and now, that it’s time to go to bed, I would say, ‘You had your time and you made the most of it,’” says Abhishek Krishna, a businessman from Chennai.
At the same time that Orkut started globally, Facebook found its way to the Harvard campus. It slowly grew to become the world's largest social networking site, with currently over 1.2 billion users.
Many Indian teens will have childhood memories of Orkut which will continue to live with them after September 30, as Google is to preserve an archive of all Orkut communities.
For many, Orkut took over their daily cartoon-watching routine. Recollects Dipesh Daniel, a Bangalore-based filmmaker, “I could interact with the people I already knew in a way I had never experienced before. I would never forget the date I went on after chatting up a girl on Orkut.”
The Orkut frenzy spread even among teens, who accessed it without their parents’ knowledge.
“I was only in Std X and my friends said, ‘Hey, I saw your scrap, why didn’t you scrap me?” Little did I realise that I would soon be part of it. I was worried about privacy, but was coaxed by my friends to join Orkut. There began a journey that ended up in my becoming a social network addict. Now with a formal notification about the closure of Orkut, many of us travel down memory lane to relive those happy times when we were part of the community,” says Ananya Rajan, an MSc student from Chennai.
The news about Orkut shutting down went viral on Twitter and Facebook. Here’s what Orkutiyas-turned-Twitterati have to say about Orkut —
@bladenomics — Stalked her on #orkut, and that children, was how I met your mother.
@SirJadeja — Deleted my Orkut account before it shuts down.. #moral Victory.!!
@Rodo_Rani — A big salute to all those who still remember the password to their #Orkut account.
@keyan_sv — #Orkut, a Neil Armstrong in social networks.
