Today I discovered...

Today I discovered Orkut, Google's social networking service. I've been looking through the profile options and setting it up. Honestly, I think that Google is trying to get a little too personal if you ask me. These questions went way beyond Facebook. Yes I have a strategically placed tattoo, but does anyone need to know about it? I'm not so sure.

On the upside, there are some features that I wish the more popular Facebook had. Right off the bat you can tell this is a Google product- intuitive, easy to use, clean layout, and the familiar chat interface. There is also quite a bit more detail on the work and education section. There are more opportunities to showcase oneself in a professional sense which improves the business networking feature. I'm going to keep playing around with this to see what my thoughts are the more I use it.

This week I also got a Google Wave account, still not sure how much I like it. Unlike their other products, I'm not finding it as intuitive... I'm a little confused about where and how to begin. It doesn't help that my friends who are using it right now aren't the people I would generally use this program with- we talk socially, not collaboratively. I'd really like more opportunity to use it in the way it is intended.

In actuality, it's been a very Google-ish week for me between a few friends suddenly discovering how great g-chat is and me being in one of my organizational moods and going a little crazy with the calendar... A few weeks ago, The Metro highlighted the company as they are expanding their facilities in nearby Cambridge. It's the top company to work for according to pretty much everyone, so with graduation soon, it's nice to know that they are now right next door.

Orkut Update:
I'm having trouble figuring out how to tag pictures which is really very frustrating, starting to think it's a bug with Safari perhaps. Otherwise, I'm starting to like it. Yes, some of the questions seem a bit "high school" and very TMI, but for the most part I actually like the interface a lot. Now I guess I'll just have to convince all of my friends to try it out too. From the 94 contacts in my address book using GMail, only one had an Orkut account and it looks like he used it once and then abandoned it. But hey, maybe everyone will catch on.