The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5)

Orkut

Got my invite the other day, I like it much more than Friendster. Friendster felt like a clique I never could get into.

Anyway, searching for different kinds of communities, and I notice that sometimes there are up to 3 communities with the exact same name... It seems kind of silly to me that there are 3 "Brooklyn" forums, one with 58 members, and two with 4 members. I bet the members & creators of each of the Brooklyn forums think theirs is the only one. And yes, they all use photos of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Of course there's the usual 15 communities on the same subject but with different names (NYC Foodies, Dinnering in NYC, but that's a different story entirely.

There's a JoS community there... Still not sure what you can do in the JoS community that you can't do on the JoS forum.

I wish I could list more than 10 communities per page, some sections have hundreds of communities. The Next button being on the left side rather than the right side is annoying.

All in all though, I like it, and coming on the heels of Friendster is impressive... Where is that thread now about starting a business with market comeptition.

36,238 members, and looking good :)

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, February 9, 2004

Way to go. Giving away all sorts of juicy marketing info about yourself all in the ruse of joining an exclusive club.

Laurel
Monday, February 9, 2004

Huh? Oh yeah, have you read the ToS? Apparently anything I post there ever is owned by them and can be used in any way they see fit.

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, February 9, 2004

"By submitting, posting or displaying any Materials on or through the orkut.com service, you automatically grant to us a worldwide, non-exclusive, sublicenseable, transferable, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right to copy, distribute, create derivative works of, publicly perform and display such Materials."

and from their privacy policy:

"We may share both personally identifiable information about you and aggregate usage information that we collect with Google Inc. and agents of orkut in accordance to the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy. We will never rent, sell, or share your personal information with any third party for marketing purposes without your express permission."

So the first one looks like a CYA clause, the second looks like "we'll keep your data, but we won't sell it... until:

"We reserve the right to transfer your personal information in the event of a transfer of ownership of orkut.com, such as acquisition by or merger with another company. In such an event, orkut.com will notify you before information about you is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy."

You might want to visit my site & read some of the articles there before accusing me of being ignorant to this kind of thing.

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, February 9, 2004

Do not be alarmed. Google is your friend. You can trust Google. Google exists to serve your best interests...

Dave Winer:

"It's their identity system. At some point they'll add a web services interface so our comment systems can connect to their back-end to validate users. Now you can go to one place to see all your comments. Then it gets better. Give it your credit card info, and then when you go to an Orkut-enabled e-commerce site, you can have one-click ordering (modulo a certain patent). Think about all the relationships Google has with sites that run their ads. "

http://archive.scripting.com/2004/02/02#When:6:04:28PM

Monday, February 9, 2004

That's no more paranoid than what I've been reading on http://www.google-watch.org/ though it is more up to date.

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, February 9, 2004

Ew. Nice link.

Monday, February 9, 2004

Too much to type here, besides it gives me a chance to show off my redesign, and it's been a while since I've published anything really paranoid sounding on my website.

http://www.marktaw.com/culture_and_media/GoogleasBigBrother.html

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, February 9, 2004

even more interesting:

http://www.google-watch-watch.org/

eaw
Monday, February 9, 2004

Oddly, the Google-Watch-Watch site doesn't focus on any of the issues raised on Google Watch.

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, February 9, 2004

"Oddly, the Google-Watch-Watch site doesn't focus on any of the issues raised on Google Watch. "

Huh? Of course not, because GWW is a site dedicated to showing what an pinheaded dolt the owner of GW is. The owner of Google Watch is just pissed because his commercial site didn't rank as high as he wanted with Google. Rather than analyze why, he joined the tin-hat brigade and proclaimed it was a conspiracy.

Huh?
Monday, February 9, 2004

Thanks for the summary, really. It was helpful. I'm not being sarcastic. Really.

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, February 9, 2004

Yeah google-watch-watch is just a distraction.

Google-watch raises great points and the issue of former highranking CIA and NSA operatives being intertwined at the highest levels of google is one that is quite interesting.

As long as your realize that google is in reality run by the NSA for the purposes of tracking you and your ideas, you'll be OK.

Dennis Atkins
Monday, February 9, 2004

Yeah, it's really hard to tell when people are just being stupid or sarcastic. Especially when their wit and sarcasm are so poorly developed.

Really.

Huh?
Monday, February 9, 2004

re: google-watch.

Why do cranks always have the same look and feel to their website? Is there a default crackpot HTML template I can download somewhere?

Monday, February 9, 2004

Well this is a fun conversation. I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the fact that there are microchips in our keyboards that capture our fingerprints and transmit every word we type to the NSA, or that Orkut really means

an Obvious Ruse to Kill Ur Time

Of course, Google-Watch-Watch-Watch.com just points out that the Google-Watch-Watch guy is just jealous that he didn't think of Google-Watch first.

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, February 9, 2004

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22crackpot+html+template%22

Big Brother says no.

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, February 9, 2004

It's very odd that google has so many techies that rush to its defense. I'm not saying it is a trojan horse, but if it wanted to be, wow. It reminds me of the Mars Attacks!

do not run, we are you friends
Monday, February 9, 2004

That's because if you admit to yourself Google is a Trojan Horse sent here by aliens from the planet Orkut, you start to get very worried... so we don't let that thought surface.

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, February 9, 2004

Oh, that and the subtle Google hypnotic training we've beeb subjecting ourselves to for the past few years.

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, February 9, 2004

* we've been

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, February 9, 2004

After two requests for invites (I bet whoever posted that he had an invite last week got even more) I'm gonna start a service where I'll invite you a $50 "donation" on paypal.

I think I can rake in more money than that Mike Rowe guy on eBay... Maybe I should auction off invitations on eBay, do you think I too can get up to $200,000.

Hey, if people auction off low ICQ numbers...

www.MarkTAW.com
Tuesday, February 10, 2004

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&krd=1&from=R8&MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&query=orkut

I guess I'm not as clever as I thought.

17 items found for orkut

www.MarkTAW.com
Tuesday, February 10, 2004

I'm available as an imaginary friend for only $40.

Tony Chang
Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Yes, but for only $2.50 on eBay, you can have an imaginary virtual social life.

www.MarkTAW.com
Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Feh! A buncha imaginary acquaintences is what you get for your $2.50 and what good is that. It's not an imaginary somebody you can really count on in a pinch. That's what I bring to the table. Somebody you can imagine you can count on when imaginary times are rough.

Tony Chang
Tuesday, February 10, 2004

You know things are bad when even your imaginary times are tough. You're definately worth the imaginary $40.

www.MarkTAW.com
Tuesday, February 10, 2004

So you've made a whole bunch of friends online, now what?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/02/09/BUGMD4RAMA1.DTL

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

I was about to ask about Orkut... Who do you have to sleep with to get invited?

Anyway, is it any good (Orkut I mean)?

Alex.ro
Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Eh. You add your friends, they add their friends. When I learned about Friendster I just thought it was the ultimate viral campaign to get people's email addresses and interests, but it turns out Friendster just sold ads to the highest bidder regardless of what your profile said about you.

Then there's communities, which are basically message boards. So there you have it. My profile, my friends, their friends, and message boards.

Not exactly rocket science. There's a community in Orkut that discusses Social Software, and even *they're* not saying anything interesting.

Oddly, I have no desire to browse my friend's friends, which I think is half the point (the other half being the "networking" which is really forums). I think Friendster did that better - they had a forum that only your friend's friends could see, and while I never got into it, when I was there there was a new post every minute or so in my circle.

www.MarkTAW.com
Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Pity it won't let you browse your friend's girlfriends.

Alex.ro
Tuesday, February 10, 2004

now THAT I would not only join, I would pay for. :)

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Ditto what Mark said, a friend invited me to join but I declined after reading their policies. Not just the stuff about "Materials" quoted above, but also:

"We also reserve the right to modify these Terms of Service from time to time without notice. You are responsible for regularly reviewing these Terms of Service so that you will be apprised of any changes."

I refuse to "sign" a contract that the other party can change at any time without notice to me. (What, like I'm supposed to read their policy every time I log on, to see if it has changed?)

C'mon, the first thing they collect is your email, how hard is it to email all users when policies change?

Biotech coder
Tuesday, February 10, 2004

"Friendster felt like a clique "

Oh come on get off your ego.
Orkut is not a clique

Your slip is showing

Skip
Saturday, May 22, 2004