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Google’s success story has a few forgettable chapters
In its 20-year history, Google has given, and Google has taken away. Companies of its size often dabble with new projects to see if the public will take them to their hearts. Sadly, for every Gmail and Maps, there are ten projects that felt the swing of the Mountain View ax. Sometimes these doomed projects have outlived their usefulness, didn't catch on with the public, or just didn't work as they should have. But while everyone celebrates Google's long life, let's spare a moment to remember the ones that didn't make it this far, and what happened next.
Orkut creator intros a social network based on your obsessions
Google might have axed Orkut a couple of years ago, but the social network's spirit is living on. Its namesake Orkut Büyükkökten has launched Hello, a follow-up social service that tries a unique angle to reel you in. Rather than compete directly with giants like Facebook, it has you choosing 'personas' (such as clubber, geek, photographer or traveler) that reflect your interests. You can browse those personas to find like-minded fans, and an algorithm helps tailor both your friend suggestions and your news stream.
Google kills Orkut to focus on YouTube, Blogger and Google+
Google's long suggested that Orkut, its other social network, was living on borrowed time, but today it's finally confirmed that the end is coming. The search giant said today that it'll shut down the service on September 30th in order to shift its focus to bigger projects like YouTube, Blogger and Google+. Although users in the US never really took to it, Orkut remained popular in Brazil and India for the better part of a decade (it's been maintained by Google Brazil since 2008). However, with Facebook and Google+ continuing to enjoy global growth, Google's decided the time is right to pull the plug on the service that was originally built as a "20 percent" project. While the company is now blocking new signups, current users can continue to contribute to the site until October. Once the deadline passes, they'll be able to export their profile data, community posts and photos using Google's Takeout tool for up to a year after it closes its doors.
Google offers unified profiles, begins merging Orkut with Google+
Orkut has announced that users of Google's other social network can now use both from a unified profile. Those who plump for the change will find their details merged (using your Google+ credentials) and will now be subject to the same privacy and sharing settings. While popular in Brazil and India, Orkut hasn't been a high priority project for Mountain View for a long time, so it's easy to see this as a move to push big swathes of people to make a move onto the company's newest favorite son.
Google brings better YouTube integration to Orkut, hopes you haven't forgotten
Remember Orkut? You know, one of Google's early efforts at diving into the social networking game. Well, the website's still operating at full force, with more than three quarters of its 66 million users coming from Brazil and India alone. The point is, Big G's still keeping tabs on the O network, thus the news of an improved YouTube integration shouldn't come as a surprise. With the fresh features, Orkut folks are able to watch / listen to videos without having to step out of their current session, saving them an extra trip to YouTube's site. Of course, similar to Facebook or Orkut's more popular relative Google+, friends can see whether you're watching kitty vids or Kony 2012. Você é um Orkut? Cross your fingers and hope it doesn't get the axe anytime soon.