Original social network: Google to call time on ‘Orkut’

Google has announced that it will shutdown ‘Orkut’, the first ever modern rendition of a social networking site, from September 30, 2014.

Orkut, Google’s first foray into social networking, was built almost a decade ago. In past decade social networking has grown rapidly, but it was the ‘Orkut’ that helped shape life online before people really knew what “social networking” was.

According to a blog published on Orkut, as other social networking ventures of Google, such as YouTube, Blogger and Google+ have taken off in last ten years. The growth of these communities has out paced Orkut’s growth, prompting Google to shut it down.

While new users will not be able to create an account, the social networking site said until the closure of the site there will be no impact on current Orkut users. Users will also be able to export their profile data, community posts and photos using Google Takeout until September 2014.

In a bid to preserve the legacy of out going services of Orkut, Google has decided to preserve an archive of all public communities, which will be available online starting September 30, 2014.

Orkut users who do not want their posts or names to be included in the community archive, they can remove Orkut permanently from their Google account.