Google’s Shutting Orkut Down
When you think about Google’s attempt at social networking you picture Google+, Wave, but you may not remember Orkut. Today the company announced that the service will shut down completely on September 30. This isn’t a huge surprise considering Google has shifted its focus to Google+ and making it so powerful that users want to use the ghost town of a social network.
After launching back in 2004, Orkut never really caught on here in the U.S., but it managed to find a following in other parts of the world. The service was particularly popular in Brazil and India, where it held on as the most popular social network until Facebook came along. Google stopped updating Orkut around 2012, and the site’s official blog hadn’t been updated for almost two years until today’s announcement.
In Google fashion you can take your data anywhere you want, but they hope you’ll move over to Google+. Orkut users can transfer their profiles, photos and community posts to Google+ anytime between now and September 2016 using Google Takeout, but the service shuts its doors this September.
If you’re a hardcore Orkut user we’d love to hear what rock you’ve lived under and if you’ll start using a different service like Google+. Tell us your thoughts and comments about the closure in the comments below.