Chennai executive held for obscene orkut profile

BANGALORE: An executive of a Chennai-based firm has been arrested for creating a fake e-mail through which an "obscene profile" in the name of a housewife here was posted on a popular social networking site, police said today.

A resident here had lodged a complaint with the cyber crime police station in October about the fake profile in Orkut where her phone number was given inviting for sexual favours, following which the woman started receiving calls regularly from strangers, police said.

India survey says Facebook affects productivity

Indian firms are losing productivity because office staff spend too long on social networking sites, a survey says.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) says workers use Orkut, Facebook, Myspace and Linkedin for "romancing" and other purposes.

Office employees questioned in the survey spent on average an hour a day on sites like Facebook, leading to a loss in productivity of nearly 12.5%.

The findings were based on responses from nearly 4,000 corporate employees.

'Dangerous'

"Close to 12.5% of productivity of human re

source in corporate sector is misappropriated each day since a vast majority of them while away their time accessing social networking sites during the office hours," according to the findings of Assocham's Social Development Foundation survey.

"As a matter of fact, [the] growing use of browsing sites can be dangerous for overall productivity and IT companies have already installed software to restrict its use," Assocham secretary general DS Rawat said.

The survey questioned 4,000 employees between the ages of 21 and 60 in Delhi, Bangalore, Madras (Chennai), Cochin, Indore, Ahmedabad, Surat, Mumbai (Bombay), Pune, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Lucknow and Kanpur.

The survey found that 77% of workers who had Orkut accounts used them during work hours.

Nearly half of office employees accessed Facebook during work time.

Moreover, four in every 10 workers built their entire Orkut or Facebook profile at work, the survey found.

Some 83% saw nothing wrong in surfing at work during office hours.

According to the survey, 19% of companies allow use of social networking sites only for business purposes, while 16% allow limited personal use.

Only 40% of the employees interviewed said that their companies allowed staff full access to social networking sites.

The survey also says that 84% of respondents in India's major cities show signs of internet addiction - they do not take breaks at appropriate times, they spend more than a "normal" amount of time online, and can get irritable if they are interrupted while surfing.

In September, Portsmouth City Council in southern England banned staff from accessing Facebook on its computers after it was revealed they spent on average 400 hours on the site every month.

The move was expected to stop the "waste of public cash". http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8423888.stm

Computer hacker accesses 30 million Facebook, MySpace, and Orkut usernames and passwords

Redwood City, CA - Hackers broke into an online database hosted at RockYou.com and illegally accessed the usernames and passwords for more than 30 million users of Facebook, MySpace, Friendster and Orkut. The hacker may also have accessed usernames and passwords for Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail accounts as well.

RockYou produces widget applications that are widely distributed on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. In order to work properly, these widgets require the user’s username and password. Most social networks have data security requirements for its widget developers, and it may be possible that RockYou was in violation of these requirements.

Orkut Introduces Inline Photo Browsing, Slideshows and Face Detection

Orkut the social networking site popular in Brazil and India has rolled out a new set of features for photo sharing on the site. The new features include Inline photo browsing, photo slideshows and Face detection for tagging friends.

Photo tagging has been pretty popular on Facebook, however, Facebook still does not have options for inline photo browsing and photo slideshows.

Orkut has been spicing up the site by introducing a new design and several more features which have brought it on par with other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. However, Orkut still lacks the popularity of Facebook and more and more users are now migrating to the other available options.

Do you use Orkut? Have you left it recently for Facebook or Twitter? Let us know through your comments.

More NY sex offenders to be removed from social networking sites

ALBANY - Thirteen additional social-networking Web sites will remove accounts belonging to registered New York sex offenders, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday.

Qasab attracts fans on Orkut, Facebook

26/11 terrorist Ajmal Amir Qasab's supporters in Pakistan use networking sites to whip up support for him

Terrorist Amir Ajmal Qasab, one of the 10 terrorists in the November 26 terror attacks on Mumbai, has attracted a huge fan following among Pakistanis on social networking sites like Facebook and Orkut.

One fan of the terrorist, who created an Ajmal Qasab fan club on Orkut, claims Qasab's arrest is part a conspiracy by Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis wing (RAW). "Well, this is my fan club.

I need no introduction. Nowadays, I am busy with officials, trying to prove myself Pakistani," he writes, posing as Qasab.

Man held for posting obscene pics of airhostesses on Facebook, Orkut

New Delhi: An unemployed 30-year-old hotel management graduate has been arrested by the police for posting morphed and obscene photographs of two Jet Airways airhostesses on social networking sites.

The accused, Jitender Singh, who is married and lives at Rohini in northwest Delhi, was arrested by the special cell on Thursday.

"Singh and the victims have a common friend. The victims recently had a dispute with that friend. So, Singh downloaded the victims' photographs from their Facebook accounts and sent morphed, obscene versions to their friends and colleagues," a senior police official said. The photos were also posted on Orkut.

The women, residents of Delhi, in their early 20s, have been with Jet since 2005.

Harassed candidates vent anger on Facebook, Orkut

New Delhi: Those unhappy with the marred Common Admission Test (CAT) are venting their ire on social networking sites Facebook and Orkut. The IIMs and the American firm Prometric, which is conducting the online test, have come in for intense criticism. "Legal cases can be filed against IIM for harassing students in such a way. Many students came to give exams from remote areas. The institute had enough time to prepare itself for such an emergency. This is playing with the life of several students," said one student on Facebook.

Orkut receives a splash of color

As the months rolled by, Orkut has been espied making some great new changes like face detections for pictures and chat options. Just last month the social networking service was revamped with Google Web Toolkit. Now Orkut lets its users alter their profile and homepage color with just one click.

According to the official Orkut blog, the company’s product manager Eduardo Thuler stated that this feature was well-received by the public. Earlier, users could gain access to only five colors namely blue, green, orange, pink and black. With great feedback, the company has now added a whole plethora of hues for their palette for members to use.

Being pretty color contrast conscious, Orkut’s background color would also change. It would go from its standard blue background to a variety of other hues in order to perfectly blend with the users’ chosen color. The palette includes a variety of light and dark shades like lilac, purple, navy blue, grey, emerald green and so on. source: http://sify.com/news/ngos-claim-toxic-waste-still-lying-at-union-carbide-factory-news-national-jl0p4vfjcjb.html

Orkut receives a splash of color

As the months rolled by, Orkut has been espied making some great new changes like face detections for pictures and chat options. Just last month the social networking service was revamped with Google Web Toolkit. Now Orkut lets its users alter their profile and homepage color with just one click.

According to the official Orkut blog, the company’s product manager Eduardo Thuler stated that this feature was well-received by the public. Earlier, users could gain access to only five colors namely blue, green, orange, pink and black. With great feedback, the company has now added a whole plethora of hues for their palette for members to use.

Being pretty color contrast conscious, Orkut’s background color would also change. It would go from its standard blue background to a variety of other hues in order to perfectly blend with the users’ chosen color. The palette includes a variety of light and dark shades like lilac, purple, navy blue, grey, emerald green and so on.

Desi Tadka: How Social Networking Sites Are Helping In The Growth Of Football

Goal.com's Subhankar Mondal discusses how social networking sites such as Orkut and Facebook Goal.com's Subhankar Mondal discusses how social networking sites such as Orkut and Facebook are adding to the popularity of football in India and elsewhere.... are adding to the popularity of football in India and elsewhere....

Like the runaway express train screaming through the tunnel, the lad goes on hitting hard his keyboard. Night is subsiding into morning but like the child who goes on reading Enid Blyton long into the night, he carries on fiercely tabbing on the keyboard.

His parents in the next room wake up and come rushing to his room, understandably annoyed at their son's impertinence to stay up so late. The mother fears that he might have resumed his long torn apart relationship with his now Spain-residing Italian boyfriend-possessing hardly studying good-for-nothing ex-girlfriend while the dad thinks he might be surfing the net for some ‘cheap entertainment’ (you know what that means, right?).

Out come the words and the thunder. And the slap. And the cane. And the newly bought Mac topples down onto the floor. The father picks it up and looks at the screen and instead of finding any picture of sensuous women doing their nutter, he discerns the unmistakable Orkut screen with football-related stuff written all over it, including the far ranging comments that have recently flocked in after Real Madrid's 1-0 win over Deportivo la Coruna.

Like a dreamy eyed romantic getting addicted to Shakespeare or a frenzied Holy Grail seeker voraciously going through each and every document containing the terms holy and grail, this lad has been hooked onto Orkut seemingly forever.

And there are hundreds, thousands and millions like him who through the social networking sites such as Orkut, Myspace and Facebook connect themselves to fellow football fanatics from around the world.

Football in India might not enjoy the mass popularity that cricket does but it is gathering momentum and doing so rapidly. Social communities such as Orkut are playing the role of a catalyst in this and football supporters from India and from around the world are coming to a single place to discuss and debate all things football.

Take for example our very own Goal.com India community on Orkut. It is a community that was started in October last year and has quickly become quite popular among football fans, who range from the regular Manchester United follower to the Gunner for Life to the Chelsea mental to the cheeky lad who says that he supports a certain club in Madrid but actually fosters affection for a certain club in Verona.

The discussions range form the intellectually refined to the regular fan-rant, the words at times soaked in Shakespearean theatrics and at times picked out of the mouth of a ruffian (well, sort of).

The Goal.com India community is not unique in this matter. There are several hundreds of communities devoted to clubs, national teams, players and managers. And even rivalries.

Salman Ahmed is the owner of one such popular community in Orkut. He lives in Bahrain and supports Spanish and European powerhouse Real Madrid.

Ahmed's community focuses on Real Madrid and he explains, "We are a united community and have many football fans and Real Madrid supporters. We keep our community updated with the latest news, comments and articles related to the club.

"Every member has different views about different players, coaches, clubs and the like but in our community we put all the differences aside and join to cheer the biggest club in the world.

"Not only do we have active members but we have intelligent participants who understand and read the game very well. People join communities that are active and in which they are welcomed any time. Our community has these features. I think our community has helped football fans from around the world come together."

The internet has apparently condensed the world and brought people closer. These football communities provide a platform for the average and the slightly above average (whatever that may mean) football fans to connect to one another, allow the Man United supporter in India to have a go at the Liverpool fanatic in Singapore or the Barcelona follower in Australia to fight against the Real Madrid fan in Toronto.

These social networking sites are hugely aiding in the growth of football in India as well as in places where football is still a secondary sport. In certain places, football might be big, maybe even huge, but is not really a (sporting) culture in the same way that it is a culture in Europe (or at least in most European nations) and in South America.

But the social networking sites, especially Orkut, Myspace and Facebook, are contributing to the alteration of the social contour and are trying to make football a vital component of the culture.

Source: http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/1117/desi-tadka/2009/01/29/1084228/desi-tadka-how-social-networking-sites-are-helping-in-the-growth

Dr Kalam's Orkut community targeted by Pak hackers

Dr Kalam's Orkut community targeted by Pak hackers

The former president respected Orkut community till date has 207,249 registered members and this attack has seriously compromised the security of the community and its members

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Pakistani hackers have targeted the Orkut community of Dr Abdul Kalam.

Prelimanary reports suggest that the hackers whose registration has been traced to Pakistan had renamed Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam community and were now using it launching pad to distribute malicious and objectionable content.

The former president respected Orkut community till date has 207,249 registered members and this attack has seriously compromised the security of the community and its members.

The orkut page of Dr Kalam currently reads "We, the people of India, apologizes to our Pakistani brothers and ISI for barbaric acts of terrorism like Mumbai and Gujarat and many more which were originated and carried out by few citizens of India and supported by government of India. We condemn such acts to fullest."

The message clearly points out new moderators whose origins can be traced to Pakistan.