Google+ rocks: What happens to Orkut? Is it dead?

Bangalore, Jul 4: The Million Dollar question buzzing in social networking market is 'What will be the future of Orkut?' With the announcement of Google's latest social networking site Google+ (Google Plus), Orkut users are in dilemma about its future.

According to various reports, the web-giant Google plans to push Google+ for the public in near future to take on its rival Facebook, which dominates the market with more than 700 million users. Google has invested a huge amount of money and time behind Google+ as the company does not want to make it another Buzz or Wave, which failed to attract users.

Google launched Orkut in 2004 after a failed bid to buy social-networking pioneer Friendster. Orkut soon grabbed popularity in United States and slowly it spread to other countries. Brazilians welcomed Orkut with an open heart and it spread like a wildfire in the country. It became a hit in other countries including India, Japan and Pakistan.

According to latest market research reports, Orkut has about 100 million active users worldwide and Alexa ranked it as 96th in the world.

With the launch of Facebook, the popularity of Orkut went down. Simple User Interface, new features, apps and games helped Facebook to gain wide acceptance among youth around the globe. Despite the latest reports of its declined growth rate, Facebook is reportedly heading towards 700 million user mark.

A report in Scientific American said that Google is not planning to pull the plug on Orkut immediately. The report quoted a Google spokesperson as saying, "Over time, we"ll determine what makes the most sense in terms of integrating these products."

Meanwhile, 'Orkut's future' has become a trending word in microblogging site twitter. Some of the orkut users demand Google to continue its support and innovation to Orkut. Some others were worried about their photos and files uploaded in the site in case of a shut down.

Google introduced Google+ on Jun 28, but granted access to limited users only. Google+ reviews revealed that it offers better features than any other social networking site available in the market. It has a brand new feature dubbed as Google+ Circles that allows users to live video chat with their friends.

Now, it's up to users to decide which platform they want to stick with. But one thing is clear, Google+ definitely will have its negative effect on Orkut.

OneIndia News