A social integration and messaging tool by Google designed t …
rkut is a social networking website that is owned and operated by Google Inc. The service is designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships. The website is named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten.
Although Orkut is less popular in the United States than competitors Facebook and MySpace, it is one of the most visited websites in India and Brazil. In fact, as of December 2009, 51.09% of Orkut's users are from Brazil, followed by India with 20.02% and United States with 17.28%.
Originally hosted in California, in August 2008 Google announced that Orkut would be fully managed and operated in Brazil, by Google Brazil, in the city of Belo Horizonte. This was decided due to the large Brazilian user base and growth of legal issues.
As of June 2010, Alexa traffic ranked Orkut 63rd in the world; the website currently has more than 100 million active users worldwide. Anyone of age above 13 years can join orkut.