ORKUT, WHICH has been seeing a dip in its popularity since the last few months, will now be seen with a new design and a number of new features. Google had enough of facebook, which has grown to be immensely popular amongst people of all age groups. Orkut, which was once an addiction for people, has been facing a decline in its popularity since the last few months and this got Google to come out with a number of new design changes to it.
Orkut will now have a lot many new features and a considerable change in its look. The refreshing new look of orkut works on the google web toolkit (GWT) infrastructure. Google said that the new look orkut will have the ability to discover and find new friends automatically. Even the video chat will be integrated with Google talk. Last but not the least, one would be able to upload photos in bulk at a much faster speed, add/view photgraphs and videos in-line and would have a more interactive activity stream. The activity stream will appear as a status message update funtionality just like twitter and facebook. One can also post video testimonials. The activity stream will have options for comments also, just like facebook update feature.
Security was a bit of concern for Orkut in its previous avatar, but with the new version it will be much safer and and faster. It would also have cusomised mobile versions for iPhone, S60 and J2ME platforms. The google bar will be seen at the top of the site, which will allow users to access other services of Google.
The new orkut will be available to a selected few users only for the initial stages. These users can invite others to have an experience of the new look orkut. Orkut even has a community for those who would like to take a preview of the new version and where one can be listed to be invited.
Will the new version of Orkut with a bundle of new features, it will be able to get back its lost users? Will it be able to stand against the mightly facebook remains to be seen.