Google launches Orkut India

After recently launch of Myspace India, Google has launched India version of Orkut. But unlike Myspace India, that can be opened from anywhere, Orkut India can be opened in India only.

India is a key country for Orkut in terms of traffic as more than 38% of traffic of Orkut is from India, second only to Brazil which contributes more than 43% of Orkut traffic. Orkut India also has themes ( remember the Diwali theme )which are being rolled out in phased manner I think because I can not see themes in my account as of now.
It seems that Google is focusing more now on India centric sites and products. In last one month it’s third India specific product from Google after You tube India and Google Hindi Translation.

So, what’s next…. A Facebook India? It can not be denied considering Mark Zuckerberg was in India recently.

Google Sites now available

Google has opend door for Google Sites for all. You can so many things on this wiki sort of website. The site URL will be like http://sites.google.com/[your-site]. Here is what Official Google Blog says:

we’ve made it easy for anyone to set up a website to share all types of information — team projects, company intranets, community groups, classrooms, clubs, family updates, you name it — in one place, for a few people, a group or the world. You can securely host your own website at http://sites.google.com/[your-website] and add as many pages as you like for free.

Getting started with Google Sites is easy. You can create different types of pages from scratch with the click of a button, and you can embed documents, calendars, photos, videos and gadgets directly into those pages.

Although, Amit Agarwal points out that all external links have rel=nofollow, so no SEO advantage.

While watching the source code of Google Sites. I found some unfished TODO task by Adam Howell. See the below screenshot .

Blog of note – People at Work & Play

I would like to recommend reading this blog People at Work & Play . The author of this blog is Mr. Prem rao, who is a Management consultant and he also owns a Management consultancy company called People1st consulting. If you like reading self motivational and management stuff, you will also love the contents of this blog. The blog is all about striking a balance in work-life. I am impressed by the posting regularity of Mr. Rao, the blog has at least one post daily. A must read…

knowpratibhapatil.com, website on Pratibha Patil

The Indian President Election debate is getting hot by the day. After electronic and print media, it’s time to use World Wide Web. Bharitya Janata Party (BJP), the opposition party in parliament has launched a campaign with the website knowpratibhapatil.com, a compilation of news on Pratibha Patil. The website contains documents, news, views, cartoons and videos on Pratibha.

Wanna know Mrs. Pratibha Patil? Go visit the site.