News

Google has finally decided to shut down Orkut for once & all. In a recent disclaimer the Orkut team stated that they are going to cease Google's 10 years old social networking site from 30th September 2014. And the site has stopped accepting new users from today itself.

Paulo Golgher, Engineering director at Google, in his recent blog wrote, "Over the past decade, YouTube, Blogger, and Google+ have taken off, with communities springing up in every corner of the world," He further added, "Because the growth of these communities has outpaced Orkut's growth, we've decided to bid Orkut farewell (or, tchau). We'll be focusing our energy and resources on making these other social platforms as amazing as possible for everyone who uses them."

 Although it is a disheartening news for Orkut lovers (fewer in number now than ever), they can easily export their profile data, community posts and photos using Google Takeout, a Google service that enables users to extract their Google data anywhere - anytime. "Orkut, the service, may be going away, but all of those incredible communities Orkut users have created will live on," Golgher wrote.

Orkut and Facebook started their journey in 2004, however, Orkut received an impressive initial popularity among users. But, Facebook started picking up the pace, and by 2008 Orkut started loosing it's battle, when Brazil & India were the only nations to allowed the site to have some footprints. However, Facebook surpassed Orkut in India as well as in Brazil afterward in 2010 & 2012 respectively.

In the ending notes, Golgher wrote, "It's been a great 10 years, and we apologize to those still actively using the service. We hope people will find other online communities to spark more conversations and build even more connections for the next decade and beyond."