The fake profiles of Formula One racer Rubens Barrichello in Orkut have earned him $500,000. Internet giant Google has been ordered to pay the amount to Barrichello as it owns and manages the social network site Orkut.

The court in Sao Paulo took the decision that was published in the Brazilian state’s official government gazette.

It said that the damages could be raised to $700,000 as the case was lodged in July 2006, and that Google risked a daily fine of $590 until the pages referring to Barrichello were removed.

The 15th district court of Sao Paulo held Google responsible for the damage as the company managed the site and established the rules for its use. According to media reports there were more than 300 fake profiles under Barrichello’s name on Orkut.

Google denied giving any immediate comment on the judgement. The amount of damage that has been ordered was the biggest yet awarded for false web profiles and online libel, said Brazilian specialists.

Source: India Server

Orkut has started displaying the biggest possible ad dimension possible with Google’s Monetizing Program – Google Adsense on pages with photos in orkut albums.

This is highly unlike Google and the way it integrates sponsored links in to it’s services – Take Google’s Search Result Pages or Gmail for best examples.

I will have to say that I smell desperation in the Orkut camp of finding effective ways to make revenue out of Orkut which is obvious since running a social networking giant demands a fortune or probably, orkut is trying to change the conception of the fact that Social Networking Websites + Advertising = Disaster for Advertisers, by placing ads on very premium spots.

Tell us how you feel about the ads being shown above the photos in orkut albums. If you are unhappy with it than need not worry, we’ll post a nice solution to block these ads in coming posts..

Source: orkutplus

f you think you can take revenge by defaming someone on social networks than you need to get better with your home work. Cyber crime cell is constantly keeping a close eye on you of which you may be unaware of.

Kolkata, India – Sourav Hazra, Male (25) – Created a Fake Orkut profile of a Woman with obscene photographs and her mobile number. Got arrested after FIR was lodged by woman’s husband whom fake profile was created. Cops arrested Sourav Hazra and have blocked the fake profile.

Bottom Line – If you are a bugger who is planning to defame a girlfriend or a girl who broke your heart or any one on orkut then know your destination now..

If you are one of the victims, go ahead to the nearest police station and lodge an FIR. Expect the culprit to be nabbed shortly thanks to Google’s Tell All Pact with Indian Cops.

Sourse: Orkutplus

Wow! It took me some time to notice this change (Guess..orkut keeps us too busy chasing its new features).

Orkut has officially dropped the feeds option they had integrated with orkut profiles. The Feeds feature was introduced a couple of years back which created a lot of buzz and found many lovers.

Some time back, really silently, orkut staff announced that they will be dropping the feeds option officially from orkut profiles since they felt this was a less popular orkut feature. Orkut also hinted that they will continue to remove less popular orkut features in future too.

Feed lovers would have noticed the silent removal of this feature much before, but since this is a less popular feature, i am sure many users still are not aware of the news.

On an ending note, I feel orkut should probably focus on creating and introducing new and better features rather than removing some features that are their originals (not copied from Facebook).

What do you think? Are you annoyed with the removal of this feature? Think there’s a worse feature which should be kicked out? Spill it here!

Source:  Orkutplus

Some days back, orkut members felt a huge difference in their scrap count.

This sudden decrease in scraps led to a feeling that their scraps were being deleted by Orkut and created a chaos in the Orkut Help Group. Many users showed their disappointment to the orkut staff relating this issue.

In case you were amongst those disappointed with this decrease in scrap count, let us clear the air on this issue and a clarification by orkut staff that should surely satisfy you.

Clearing The Air – Were The Scraps Really Deleted?

Yes! The scraps were really deleted by Orkut but they had a very valid reason for performing such operation. According to orkut, your scraps were earlier counted inaccurately. Also, your scraps may have decreased because earlier, scraps from deleted profiles remained in your scrapbook and now, scraps from deleted orkut profiles have been removed to protect privacy of active orkut users.

Source: orkutplus

The big news coming in courtesy Reuters is that Google has decided and has already implemented the decision to kick out the option of posting anonymous posts and comments in orkut communities.

According to Google, “This kind of comment gives an impression of anonymity that is not true, since there is no anonymity on the Internet”. Google also clarified that majority anonymous comments and posts were spam and abusive in nature, Thus Google decided to disable option of allowing anonymous users to post and comment on orkut to maintain transparency and generate more useful conversations.

Source: Reuters

Supreme Court, the Highest Lawmaking Authority in India has made it amply clear that any one, no matter what age, minor or adult – indulging in death threats on orkut or anywhere on the world wide web, will be liable for criminal prosecution.

A few weeks back, there was an uproar on the world wide web when Supreme Court of India refused to protect a 19-year-old Kerala boy, who had started a community on Orkut against Shiv Sena, from protection against summons received from a Maharashtra court on a criminal case filed against him.

Once Nabbed, A computer science student, Ajith (19-year-old Kerala Boy) pleaded that the comments made on the blog were mere exercise of their fundamental right to freedom of expression and speech and could not be treated as an offence by police.

Supreme Court Bench was unsatisfied with the plead and declared – “We cannot quash criminal proceedings. You are a computer student and you know how many people access internet portals. Hence, if someone files a criminal action on the basis of the content, then you will have to face the case. You have to go before the court and explain your conduct.”

Read Write Web has covered this issue in detail. Dhananjay also shares his opinion.

Again, you should be aware of the fact that you are responsible for your actions on orkut and internet as a whole. Stay cool and don’t loose it especially on a public platform else get ready to be nailed.

I am getting quite a lot of emails related to this issue so decided to share this issue with you guys. If you are seeing [content suppressed] in your Orkut Status Message or your profile description or your community description or your community posts then this post will give you an exact reason for this problem.

There are some common reasons which can automatically change your profile’s about me or your status message or your community description/posts to [content suppressed]

This is orkut’s way of curbing spam and execution of malicious javascripts or keyloggers and virus attacks

Today, We shall discuss what can make you lose your about me section overnight..

• Suspicious Links – Please keep one thing in mind. Orkut Hate’s Links. If your community description or your about me section contains links to external websites, your about me is not going to last long, so create a backup. (Duh! Lazy? Okay..We will create that tool for you.. )
• Blocked Links – Orkut has blocked some websites permanently. Thus, if you try posting a scrap with any of those blocked links, the scrap would conveniently be thrashed in to the spam folder. Tip – Try posting a scrap with the link – www.orkutplus.net and you’ll experience exactly what i just told.

• Links to Orkut Apps – Yes! Even links within orkut are unacceptable to the orkut content suppressor bot. This is equivalent to spam but the major blow which led to it’s rejection was the security threats some of the rougue orkut applications posted to the users of orkut.
• Links to Orkut Communities – This is Spam according to orkut..
• Compressed Archives – Orkut wont take your zip or rar files. Fair Enough! They have no reason to be placed in your about me or your community description. So better keep those off orkut else orkut will suppress..err content suppress you..
• Executables – Executable files (.exe) files are potentially harmful. They wont stand a chance on orkut.
• Javascript Codes – Javacript snippets are capable of turning orkut upside down. I have covered the risks, simple looking javascript snippets pose. So don’t bother trying else you will have content suppressed written all over your face.
• Userscripts – Userscript links reminds orkut staff (and even userscripts.org) about it’s wrost nightmare – the scrap all spam.

Obviously, Orkut was bound to take these steps especially when their staff members managed to get hacked a couple (1,2) of times.

What do you think? Does ‘Content Suppressed Bot’ Sucks?..Share your opinion with us..