Once Upon Time in __________

8:27 am in morning and I am 3 minutes away from my cabin. The day I started working as Project lead, my timings have been changed to give a chair first touch of my ASS and the last touch of the day(that allow my chair to breathe out of my ASS :)) ). Well, it’s not because I always find loads of work as lead, it’s just I need some more time to surf ;) :P .

“Champa and Chameli are friends now”…..“Pussy cat and Mini meow shared a link”……“Mallika was tagged in the album”……“ X commented on Y’ status”….. This is all I start my day with on FACEBOOK. Every morning I have immense zeal to check my FACEBOOK updates more than my Official mails in the office. I don’t know how and why I can’t resist myself from punking into friends and their girlfriend’s status messages + comments on each of them + comments on comments to make it chain of comments, smart and sexy videos shared across single link, daily fortune cookie, lucky numbers/colors, new photos on albums + comments + comment multiplied by comments, Farm ville, CHESS championship, cricket, pool and games over games – etc. etc. etc. One never misses chance to show off, to exhibit their most natural and drastic talent of commenting on daily updates of friends. So do I. FACEBOOK has evolved generation into single click – yes, one click and you are into the Matrix of friends, colleagues, girls, activity partners etc – everyone you want to be in contact with. There is endless to write about incredible though highly interactive work of Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (I am sure more than 95% of people who are using FACEBOOK accounts doesn’t even know the GOD of FACEBOOK. Well they even don’t need to, bcoz that was not the aim behind creation of FACEBOOK :)). Well, But the fact is this blog is not about FACEBOOK, It’s about ORKUT.

Once upon a time in NIT, when I started with my first ever(I have 3 accounts on ORKUT) account on ORKUT. It was the first website I used as Social network for friendship and a community hub in last year of college coming out of Yahoo chat, mail etc. Last semester and we had to submit project at EOS (end of semester). It used to be more on lab during that semester with expectations of coming out with great deal of work on project we handed on. But – the day we came to know they’re internet access terminals, we banged on it. Software Engineers and Internet– together it sounds like FAAFADA AND JALEBI (cant thought of them separately ;)). I started scribbling on my ORKUT account about my profile with lots of stylist framing of words and with facts which never were facts about me ;) :D . I chose best of my snaps to put it on ORKUT profile photo. I initiated connecting on ORKUT from college mates. I started making friends an ORKUT friends(This was really strange that friends became ORKUT friends now). One part of being glad was - even if we all gonna go in any corner of World after placements of college, we all going to be 1 in All and All in 1. ORKUT gave smile to all pals who never wanted to drop contacts apiece.

Sooner or Later as it was expected new community was shaped – Nirma University. Everyone started joining it and sooner the count of members reached above than expected. NIRMA was divided into more sub communities (actually they were separate communities) – NIRMA COMPUTERS, NIRMA CRICKET, NIRMA ELECTRONICS, NIRMA MECHANICAL etc etc etc. Today – it reached to 2325 members of the NIRMA UNIVERISTY and I keep thinking do I know them all? NO – but All I know is - I can know them anytime.
Well this was the era of ORKUT. Not only college friends, it went across a huge network across the globe. Everyone started jumping on ORKUT leaving their other networking tools. It went on and on with unstoppable force. I even have seen Cyber cafés being full of 20 people and 19 are playing on ORKUT. Even mobiles starts with ORKUT and end with it. Every day thousands and thousands people got connected via or in better words WITH ORKUT and number went on in Millions in short term. OLD friends, new friends, sweet friends, sexy friends, cool friends, hot friends, cousins, niece, nephew, uncle, aunt, teachers, students, businessmen, doctors, patients, activity partners, dating people, love funters and sex hunters, girlfriends, boyfriends, prostitution, gays, Lesbos, crime monsters. EVERYONE YOU COUNT ON WAS ON ORKUT - EVERYONE. Honestly speaking I found my more than ~80 friends whom I lost my contacts with after schooling in 4th and were my best pals. You can run, you can hide but you can’t escape ORKUT ;) :D

Everyone was connected with single link. More and more people were getting in and in and in - now being part of this Matrix (I don’t know why I keep using this word, but ORKUT world reminds me MATRIX - A Computerized software system which is replacing real humans with their profiles and their emotions with Smilies ( :) ) and Winkies ( ;) ). They are not real, but seem no lesser than real.).

However - anything which starts with bang must find a way to end or to fade away. Now change was inevitable. Things have to change – one way or other way. People always seeks for better, newer, safer and innovation. In mere words - FACEBOOK is IN and ORKUT is dropping its RK. I guess, now viewers can fill in the blank of my Blog title.

I was quite surprised to see the news in the headlines few days back about the deal of Microsoft with the social networking site FACE BOOK ( http://vista.blorge.com/2010/02/06/microsoft-and-facebook-forge-new-bing-deal-on-search-and-advertising/ ). FACEBOOK is a 3 and a half year old social network. Microsoft’s entry into the social networking venue has raised quite a many eyebrows over the fact that “Microsoft paid $240 million price for 1.6% stake in Face book. This clears the view, world’s largest software maker, crudely wanted to deepen its relationship with a startup that didn’t have $200 million in annual revenue”

I did look around for the reason as to why Microsoft prefer FACEBOOK over ORKUT and was surprised to see that FACEBOOK users are more than the number of ORKUT users. The main reasons for users liking FACEBOOK what I could find were:
 From an overall cosmetic and customization point of view, FACEBOOK is a much more professional looking whereas ORKUT looks somewhat unfinished.
 FACEBOOK's Mini Feed feature is useful in seeing a quick snapshot on the latest happenings within your network.
 The ease at which you can customize layouts within FACEBOOK, especially the drag and drop option.
 The ability to supply how you know a person (through school, other friends, work, randomly, etc...). This is especially interesting when you and one your contacts know the same person, but through different ways.

The only reasons why users like ORKUT were:
 The only point where people seemed to love ORKUT was – it’s easier to find old friends and colleagues as compared to FACEBOOK. The only drawback of FACEBOOK was that in the resistance of a beginner to join in for the first time.
 I like how you can see the number of times your profile has been viewed with ORKUT.
 Integration of Google chats.
 Ease of creating communities and groups even they are repeated and create your own world.

I have loved ORKUT ever since I joined it and I liked FACEBOOK too. But FACEBOOK still hasn’t impressed me to the point to digest the fact that Microsoft has ploughed in $240 million.
Well, I think I will say ALVIDA to ORKUT very soon. But what will remain forever is - “ONCE UPON TIME IN ORKUT”.