6 months ago
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Orkut, the most happening social networking site in India has lately managed to irritate me by adding new features to its repertoire (Apps, Photo Updates). But it is its latest feature that has managed to irritate me the most. First thing I notice this morning is I can chat on Orkut!. What the hell!? What annoyed me even more was it had automatically selected few friend groups and added them to my Google talk list without my permission.
It has destroyed the whole purpose of keeping instant messaging personal. If they wanted people in Orkut to chat with each other they should have created new software or a widget that would have enabled them to do so. They shouldn't have brought in Google talk to do their job.
Don't be surprised if you type www.google.com in your browser tomorrow and find an unwanted person pinging you (all in the name of social networking) instead of finding what you were looking for.
I have so far found few ways to get around this nuisance;
1. Go offline in Orkut - But this solves only half the problem. You will not be able to remove people that Orkut obliged adding. Moreover, you will not be able to chat with people you really wanted to chat with. You will be offline :(2. Sign in to Orkut -> Go to settings -> Chat Tab -> Uncheck all the check boxes and save changes. This will remove all the people Orkut had added without your permission.3. Do not sign-in into orkut :)
Once you complete the first two steps, you can go back to your usual chatting.
Looking at the flip side of the coin, this new feature of Orkut has few advantages as well.
1. It is now very easy to find an Orkut friend’s Gmail ID and add him or her to your Google talk List.2. Chat and Scrap without having to switch between browser windows.
I have nothing against Google or Orkut but it is just that I got irrirated looking at its latest feature. Now that I have blogged about it. I feel so good :)
Since my rants were focused so much on Google, I would like to leave you with an interesting piece of news that I read in the Times of India today. It is about 'Kosmix'. It is a search engine which is set to challenge the search-engine-giant, 'Google'. Venky and Anand, two Indians who missed two chances to buy Google way back in 1998 have now raked in funds to start their own search engine. You read me right! Google was on sale 10 years back for a cool $1 billion :)
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Secret option number 4: Dont have an account on orkut!
Its a total waste of time. Add your friends on Gtalk and call a party!
Social NEtworking unless directed properly is an absolute waste of time. (Except maybe when finding that one old friend from school who had long hair and a sweet smile whose first name was...?)
Maybe Facebook though, for obvious and unapparent reasons? :D :D
Google was on for 1 bil. Where did I leave my cheque books?
:D
If something is go popular website. They will add more feature like what u mention.
But Orkut is providing option to u to customize, So just go and customize thats it.
For this purpose U cant blame Orkut.
I feel orkut is good. Because I can see old girl friends photos even though they never speak with me.
Its good na!
Glad I read this post--I knew orkut had added chat--but I didn't know anyone could ping you while you're in orkut. (Is that what it means?)
Anyway--it does not bother me much as I don't stay on orkut for that long and use it mostly for work and for that i find it really really useful.(Ready data base for sources for any article I'm working on)
And like you said "Ignore" option is always there.
Cheers
preeti
This comment has been removed by the author.
This is really a Nuisance. the 1st thing i open the morning is gtalk. 2nd(if any mails) i open gmail and then orkut. now, someone pings me and i see the then notification in all the 3. its like.. where do i look what was the last conversation. a big NO to Gtalk on orkut. s agreed we can change the settings, still not so happy with it.
Check this out:
http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Googles_freebies_cost_taxpayers_7_Billion-nid-49749.html
It was a coincidence that I read your post and this article on the same day.
Cheers
-CK-
Hi Vivek,
Secret Option 4 - Hahaha
You know something!? Facebook is on track to become the most popular web site in Britain, as measured by the number of minutes users spend on the site each month.
Find your cheque book as soon as possible. Who knows, Kosmix can come up for sale :)
Hi Pradeep,
What if your old girl friend locks her photographs ;)
I agree that it can be customized a lot. But sometimes feel the look, feel and contents of Orkut 6 months ago was better than what it is today.
Aah!!! Why are you so pissed.. calm down.. All such sites have just one funda, Mint money at whatever cost... I am hardly available there. Its jus that profile is there... It lost its charm long back..
Hi Preeti,
Just imagine all your X-Men pinging you Good Morning when you log in every time :) Hahaha...
But it is not exactly what you thought it is. As of now, only people who are in your list can ping you. But then if I have 330 friends on Orkut I would not like to chat with all 330 of them.
Hi Kumuda,
Good to see you on comment section!! :)
This tells me that you completely agree to what I have written. Thanks for agreeing with me :)
Notification popping up everywhere is so very irritating. I hope they give us an on-off switch soon.
Hi Chandan,
Baap re!! It is very hard to believe that an organization like Google can get down to doing something so cheap. Just hope the reports are false. I have immense respect for Google.
Hi Oxy,
Orkut.com is more or less my home page and to see something like this first up in the morning irritated me a lot. Now that I have blogged and have found few friends agreeing to it, I am happy :)
I was a total Orkut addict once upon a time, so much that I had to delete my profile to get rid of the addiction. After a few months, I started it again on public demand. But in the meanwhile, I had started blogging and now Im glued to this. I have found a lot of old friends through Orkut and through blogs, I have found some new good friends like you.
But is that a bug in orkut; sometimes, I see only a single scrap and I wouldnt be able to click on the reply button ???
Hey Varun, this piece of info is fab!!!! I just got so irritated when i saw the unwanted online chat facility...I mean if i want to chat with someone of course which is my obligation, I will do so........Btw to the question on my post charlie's angelsss...We were cuddling coz we were feeling sad that we were gonna part in a few months and will miss all the fun and madness.........
Hi Vimmuuu,
I am not denying the fact that Orkut is a wonderful medium to find old friends and keep in touch with them. But there are few new features they are adding for the sake of money which is irritating me :).
The reply button disappears sometimes. It could be a problem with your browser also.
I think this is taking the concept of social networking too far! Contrasting, because there's an option where I can make my profile private and only selected people can view it.. Now, the whole world can CHAT with me! Grr... I don't like it! x-(
Hi Valerine,
Thanks a lot! That is exactly the reason why I was irritated too. Hope you found the post useful and turned that stupid thing off.
Hi Ghazala,
Welcome to my digital diary! Thanks a lot for providing me the opportunity.
Happy Birthday!!
Thanks for the informative post.
Hi Reema,
Thanks so much! How did you come to know that it is my birthday today? :)
I switched to FaceBook, and made the kids give a weird unrecognizable name to their unused Orkut accounts. I think it has changed a lot since then, scrapping was shockingly public - like you could read anybody's plans to meet, eat, call, bunk classes etc
Once a friend and I were sitting at my place (pre-blogging era)and she said her son had an Orkut account and the laptop was right there, so I showed her his page(or whatever it is called) and she was shocked to read in his scraps his plans for a movie that day :) He was supposed to be in college!
Hey Happy Birthday :)
So you are a Sagittarian! So do you like dogs and animals and causes and outdoors and all ?
Interesting. I have detested all these social networking sites to the maximum possible extent. Why do I still use it? Just because some friends of mine don't understand what an IM means. I think you get the picture? Btw, nice blog. :)
Hi Nikhil,
Yes! It has destroyed the whole purpose of keeping profiles private. I hope they do something about it and bring in some changes.
Hi IHM,
Thanks a lot for the wishes! How do you know so much about Saggis? Yes, I do love outdoors and dogs.
Even though I have a facebook account, I find it very complex. Orkut was simple and beautiful but they have recently cluttered it with all kinds of unwanted applications and features.
Your friend's son can now plan his movie though. It is more secure ;)
Hi Pavan,
Welcome to my Digital Diary! Thanks a lot :)
Social networking sites are very good for finding long lost friends. I simply cannot see any more advantages from it.
You have been tagged :
http://vimalsparadise.blogspot.com/2008/12/meanest-tag-and-coolest-award-ever.html
Lol ...
for me invisible option is best option :D
Vimmuuu,
Thanks for the tag buddy!!
Arvind,
Haha... I agree. Invisible is the way to go!! :D
I don't log on to orkut as suggested by you. Though, there is a chat feature on facebook too. It does not add those contacts to your gtalk or any other messenger :) There again you can go offline and choose not to chat.
Did not have 1 B$ then, don't have it now :( someday!! :D ;)
Hi Apar,
I know facebook is much better. But now that I have all my friends on Orkut it is quite difficult to make the switch :(
Let that someday come soon :D
good post..errr rant !! yup orkut can sometimes be very irritating.
btw thx for comment on my blog and reminding me that i "still" have a blogspace :D
well orkut is both a blessinga nd a curse...and since more and more privacy options are coming up, i am on with it...atleast u wont hav the whole world reading watever is there in ur scarps and all and it helped me reunite with lots of old friends...and ya since the ignore option is there i can always ignore unwanted people na :)
chk it out!
http://apensievetoofull.blogspot.com/2008/12/and-another.html
cheers!
When are you writing your next post? I am waiting. :)
orkut is a global nuisance .... can get you addicted to itself .... and now with all the applications loading on the profile page .... an attempt to copy facebook ... its surely getting very irritating ....
Hi Rashmi,
Thanks and Welcome to my Digital Diary! I was just going random blogs when I stumbled upon your blog. Since I could relate to the topic I thought I might as well drop in a comment :)
Hi Engima,
Welcome to my Digital Diary! You are absolutely correct. It is both a curse and blessing. I have managed to find lot of old friends through it but it is irritating me a lot lately.
Hi Archana
Thanks a lot for the awarding the creative person in me :)!
Hi Vivek,
Thanks a lot for the awarding the creative person in me :)!
Hi Pavan,
The new post is on its way. Sorry for the delay!
Hi Harsh,
Welcome to my Digital Diary!
That is exactly what I feel. It should not have copied facebook. Google is known for its innovations and they should have though about something new to implement.