Orkut, the new social networking built by a Google engineer, went back online today, so I went back onto Orkut. Within minutes, I found myself almost feverishly searching for friends to add who were already there. I took the list from my Ryze page and started looking for all the people I actually talk to or share strong interests with in the ‘real’ world. After a bit of that, I did something I literally have never done before–started inviting people from my address book.
Orkut has so many neat little features that make it fun to use.
I particularly like the ability to see a friend’s network as a set of stacked names and photos;the playful colors and expressive icons, the I am a fan capabiity (this is a great way to give whuffies to pals), and the neat, orderly list of friends, with their email right at hand. I can tell there are a lot of other neat features in which I have not (yet) invested any time.
The challenge is going to be learning it well enough to meet new people–on Ryze, I actually meet people through the site, which hasn’t happened with Tribe and LinkedIn. That ability to discover people is part of what I like best about Ryze, so Orkut will need something equivalent to keep me enthralled.