Farewell Orkut

Though it was last week that Google Inc announced its long-awaited decision to shutdown Orkut, the news only sank in today when I read the following Farewell Orkut email

Frankly speaking, I don’t care for Orkut. I haven’t even checked my account for years. It seems ages ago that I logged in Orkut just to have a look, let alone using it for sending scraps.

And this world is a fast paced one. We cannot really dwell over technologies that have become redundant. We can only move forward and embrace newer networks and newer connections.

Still, reading Orkut’s farewell letter left me a little uneasy.

Once upon a time, when Orkut ruled, it actually RULED. There was no one else like it. It was the first social networking site that gave me a high.

I started using Orkut actively in 2006. A friend told me that I can find anyone on Orkut – anyone! To check its might, I searched for a girl who was my best friend in middle school. I just knew her name and nothing else. I didn’t know her city, or the school she completed her studies from, or her college, nothing.

Surprised, astonished, amazed aren’t the words. What I felt was ‘bewildered.’ Really, because I found a girl with whom I had no contact for the last 13 years. And I found her on Orkut.

That was just the beginning. I was glued and I used Orkut for a good couple of years.

Those were the time when we were shy on putting up a profile pic, unlike the bold selfies that we now love taking. Our life as we portrayed on Orkut was humbler and much closer to reality.

Then Facebook rose to fame and Orkut was forgotten. But in this world, nothing lasts forever and change is the only certainty. In Google Inc’s own words,

“…people will find other online communities to spark more conversations and build even more connections for the next decade and beyond.”