Orkut Bites The Dust This September 30

It seems that Google is doing some spring cleaning at the moment, clearing out their “cupboard” of apps that they deem are surplus to the requirements. We did bring you word on how Google will no longer make Quickoffice available on the App Store and Google Play, and here we are with word that Google will be asking Orkut to call it a day, despite the fact that this social networking product is the first of its kind from Google, and remains hugely popular in two heavily populated countries, Brazil and India.

Being ruthless does seem to be an ideal worth striving and achieving in the world of technology as and when required, since sentiment might actually hold back innovation. What hurts, however, is the timing of it – with Google making this announcement right smack in the middle of the World Cup that is being held in the spiritual home of football (or soccer, depending on which continent you live on), that is, Brazil.

Google informed users of the Orkut network that “YouTube, Blogger and Google+” had “outpaced Orkut’s growth”, and this September 30th will be the last day that Orkut will be in operation. Google shared on their blog, “Until then, there will be no impact on current Orkut users, to give the community time to manage the transition. People can export their profile data, community posts and photos using Google Takeout (available until September 2016). Starting today, it will not be possible to create a new Orkut account.”

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers
Tags: Google, orkut, social network