Orkut gives users more power

BANGALORE, INDIA: Starting this week, Orkut offers the answer to a long-held and growing predicament of almost anyone who is active on a social network: how do I define and organize my groups of friends while sharing exactly what I want to - and just what I want to - with each of them, in an easy-to-manage way?

Orkut users can now decide to make their Christmas photos visible just for family (and not coworkers); invite college friends to a happy hour (and not friends from work); and share their favorite music videos with just those friends with similar tastes in music (instead of everyone on their profile), said a press release.

The announcement follows a study report that said that Facebook has beaten Orkut in Indian market.

"Orkut is continuing down the path of innovation with a complete transformation in product DNA that began just last year," affirmed Victor Ribeiro, product director for Google. "Not only do these changes let users connect with their social groups in a way that more closely matches real-life, but users will want to interact even more, now that they have more control over who has access to their updates than ever before," Ribeiro said.

The algorithms behind Orkut's updated platform suggest groups from each user's existing contacts, based on that user's interactions and connections. Users can freely accept, reject or edit group suggestions as desired. In addition, Orkut users can now create their own groups according to interests they define, making it possible to communicate in a manner that is as private and personalized or extensive and broad as the user desires, said the release.

"We've created this new functionality to give Orkut users more privacy and control over how they share content. They will now know with certainty whom they've authorized to see and interact with their information online," says Ribeiro. "Innovating to match the ways users interact online, while maintaining strong privacy controls has always been a priority for us and will continue to drive every stage of Orkut's evolution."

The new functionality will be available to some users starting today, reaching availability to 100 percent of Orkut users worldwide by the end of the week.