SEM NewsGoogle to expand into networking service
2004-01-23
In yet another move to expand, Internet search giant Google has moved into one of the hottest Internet areas of the moment - social networking.
Entitled Orkut, the new service allows users to link up with friends of their friends and is said to be a clone of the community networking website Friendster.
The product is named after Orkut Buyukkokten, an employee of Google, who produced the site while working at the company and is said to reflect the company's interest in networking, after acquiring the Blogger weblogging service last year.
Reportedly planning to offer more features than Friendster, the launch comes after Google tried to purchase the site for $30 million and was refused.
Still in testing mode the project's success will be hard to judge for a while due to the number of similar servicing networks that have been set up in the last year.
Orkut only accepts people to the network that are invited by someone already on there and for the time being Google is said to be taking a hands-off approach, although the site reportedly features 'in affiliation with Google' a number of times.
Users on the site will be able to enter their own profile and set varying degrees of friendship with different people, as well as having their own personal control over which members see which parts of their details.
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